Voting Systems

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Voting systems all around the world serve more functions than to only elect representatives for the people. Elections create a sense of a democratic environment inside a country; they give accountability and legitimacy to the government in power, assuming it is the people’s voice that is being heard. In a world where most countries enjoy democratic governments and freedom and equality are encouraged, Canada’s current voting system is a nothing but disrespectful to these democratic values. Like in many post-colonial countries, the legacy of imperial regimes has made its way to the modern political system in Canada, still attacking central democratic principles . Canada has been using a single-member-plurality (SMP) electoral system, also known as first-past-the-post (FPP), which carries numerous problems for the consolidation of truly democratic elections. It is this particular kind of system that degrades the vote of Canadian citizens. This paper argues that Canada needs a new voting system due to the mechanics of the FPP system; they allow for the creation of minority governments; create disproportion between seats and votes; makes voting a matter of geographic circumstances rather than political preferences; and, generates lack of representation of both citizens and political parties. To argue which kind of electoral system best suits Canada at the national or provincial level goes beyond the scope of this paper. Nevertheless, many scholars agree that Proportional Representation (PR) would be a better choice of representation.

Before going into further detail of why is it that the above mentioned failures of the SMP system urge for a change in Canada’s voting system, the way it works must be understood. When elections ...

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Pilon, Denis. The Politics of Voting: Reforming Canada’s Electoral System. Toronto:

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Reforms in the 1990’s,” Annual Review of Political Science 2 (2008): 161-181.

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