Revising Canada's Electoral System

After 142 years of democracy-distorting first-past-the-post elections, the time for proportional representation in Canada is now.

Last fall, millions of Canadians went to the ballot box to participate in the democratic process in Canada’s 40th general election. Yet few voters likely stopped to consider that at the fundamental level of how Canadians cast their vote, this election was essentially no different than the 39 that came before it. We still use the familiar first-past-the-post (FPTP) system in Single Member Districts, which in simple terms means that constituents get one vote and whichever candidate in a given riding gets the most votes wins. Simple.

But consider this: in the October 2008 federal election some 940,000 votes were cast for the Green Party, yet they received not a single seat in Parliament. In sharp contrast, 813,000 Conservative votes in the province of Alberta sent 27 Conservative MPs to Ottawa. What is the alternative to these types of electoral distortions? In two words: proportional representation.

Proportional representation, or PR, can come in many shapes and sizes. Dozens of countries around the world, from wealthy and long-established Western European states to impoverished and burgeoning democratic regimes in Africa, have chosen to adopt some form of PR. Everything from single-transferable-votes, to multi-member districts, to party list voting may fall under its umbrella, but they all share the common aim of ensuring that the legislature more closely mirrors the democratic will of voters. For example, after last year’s federal election, the 308-seat Parliament consisted of 143 Conservatives, 76 Liberals, 50 Bloc Quebecois, and 37 New Democrats. Yet according to an analysis by Fair Vote Canada, if Parliament actually mirrored the share of the vote that Canadians gave to each party, it would look strikingly different:

117 Conservatives (38 per cent of the popular vote)

81 Liberals (26 per cent of the popular vote)

57 New Democrats (18 per cent of the popular vote)

28 Bloc Quebecois (10 per cent of the popular vote)

23 Greens (7per cent of the popular vote).

In a Canada operating under PR, our government could well be a coalition of Liberals, New Democrats and Greens, united by their common commitment to addressing the issue of climate change. With a clear majority of 161 seats, they would have formed a government representing a majority of Canadian voters, instead of the current Conservative minority, which represents the voting intentions of less than 4 in 10 Canadians.

Defenders of the status quo argue that the exaggerated majorities that the FPTP system tends to create help ensure political stability in Parliament in pursuit of that most Canadian of constitutional values, first enshrined in the British North America Act: namely, “peace, order, and good governance." Yet despite three elections in the past five years, all of which produced minority governments, the sky has not fallen, the Canadian ship of state has continued on course, and most Canadians living outside of the Ottawa political bubble have likely seen little disruption to their daily lives except political ads on TV a little more frequently than usual.

On May 12, voters in British Columbia will have a chance to vote on a referendum to institute what has been called “BC-STV.” If passed, this would see Canada’s third most populous province abandon the FPTP system and replace it with multi-member districts, a preferential ballot, and partial voting transfers. This would be the first major overhaul to Canada’s electoral system in our history as a nation and an important experiment in democracy. Isn’t it time for Canadians to see for themselves that democracy is not a one-size-fits-all proposition?