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This is the latest in a series examining what’s behind voter intentions during the 2015 federal election campaign.

In the 2011 federal election, the NDP soared to Opposition status on the wings of candidates that few people — including many who voted for them — had ever heard of. For some, the ‘Orange Wave’ was proof that parties and leaders matter much more to voters than who the local candidate is.

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This week, the Local Parliament project put that notion to the test with our latest survey of Canadian voters.

Central to the logic of the Canadian electoral system is that representation is local. MPs are elected in geographic constituencies that, at least in design, are drawn around coherent communities. MPs are then expected to represent the interests of this community in Parliament. They can take on other interests, of course, as they often do when they become experts or advocates. But, at its core, our system is designed to be an aggregation of local representatives.