Disadvantages Of The FTPP Electoral System

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Canada is overdue for electoral reform. Canada’s current first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system has many flaws. Firstly, it over-rewards the winning party leaving many Canadians without any direct representation in Parliament. Secondly, the FTPT electoral system is highly susceptible to regional distortions and often over-rewards regionally concentrated parties. Thirdly, it promotes strategic voting, as it favors a two party system and does not allow for the possibility of a small party to win. Fourthly, FPTP does not promote diverse and qualified representation. A Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system can solve many of the issues that come about with FPTP. The MMP electoral system is a system where the proportion of votes a …show more content…

Consequently, parties pick party leaders based on how many votes they would get the party, rather than choosing a candidate who is best qualified or deserving. Of course, the candidates that win the most votes are typically white male elites. Unlike FPTP systems, the MMP system has political parties use a party list to decide who gets a seat in Parliament. The party list is published and distributed to every household prior to the election. Since in the MMP system one vote goes to the voter’s choice for local representation and the other vote goes towards their favourite party, the party itself is not tied down to having one person representing the party. Mention first how MMP system and the party list create for more diverse representation. For example, Matland and Studlar explain the correlation between female representation and the electoral system …show more content…

Joseph points out that “lists are closed, in other words defined by the parties themselves, with no possibility for the voters to influence either the selection or the rank of candidates” (Joseph 188). Therefore, there is no guarantee that any party would rank a minority representative at the top of the party list or even nominate minorities for the party list. However, studies like the ones done by Matland and Studlar show that there is a much better chance of minorities being placed on party lists as compared to the FPTP system’, rather than a list of all white

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