Part 2 of a multi-blog essay on the use of Multi-Member Districts
Multi-Member Districts in Canadian history
Every province in Canada used MM districts at one time or another. Elections in two of Canada's three Territories and also many federal elections used them as well.
in 1867 and in 1982 we did not have single-winner FPTP everywhere. Some might say that when the constitution (the BNA) was formulated, single-winner FPTP was our only electoral system, gifted us by the old country and never questioned.
The most common other system used was Block Voting, still plurality but in multi-member districts, so not single-winner FPTP.
As of Confederation in 1867 or shortly thereafter, and as provinces and a Territory were brought into Confederation or shortly after that happened, voters voted in MMDs at both the provincial/territorial and federal levels.
immediately in the case of NB, NS, BC, PEI and NL
soon (by 1890) in the case of NWT and Ontario.
prior to 1910 in the case of Yukon and Alberta
prior to 1915 in the case of Manitoba
prior to 1921 in the case of Saskatchewan.
Only in Quebec (and Nunavut) have voters never voted in MMDs since 1867.
Only in Nunavut have voters never ever voted in MMDs.
In fact, in 1867,
Quebec and Ontario had just stopped their previous long-time use of MMDs,
most of the provinces that joined Confederation in the 1800s - NB, NS, PEI, BC - used MMDs in their first provincial elections after joining Canada,
and some continued to use MMDs and Block voting into the 1900s,
a couple right almost to the 21st Century. even during time when the Constitution was repatriated and made our own in 1982.
As well, starting in 1867 some federal ridings were multi-member and therefore did not use FPTP. (see below)
In 1867 two of the four original provinces were using MMDs, (Ontario and Quebec had recently stopped their use of MMDs)
BC, PEI , NL used MMDs when they joined later
by 1900 Ontario, NWT had experience of using MMDs. (ON used MMDs again, 1914-1926.)
Alberta and Sask, after being hived off of NWT in 1905, soon used MMDs, Alberta used at least one MMD in every election between 1909 and 1955.
By 1914 Manitoba had MMDs
Here's the district situation at date of Confederation (or before) and after -
Original join-ers
Quebec/Canada East (MMDs prior to 1861) (SMDs 1861 to Confederation) SMDs after Confederation
Ontario/Canada West (MMDs prior to 1861) (SMDs 1861 to Confederation)
SMDs until 1886 when Toronto became a three-seat district. (Ottawa became MMD also)
New Brunswick The MLAs, of which a majority voted for NB to join Confederation, had been elected in 1866 in five 4-seat districts, one 3-seat district and nine two-seat districts. Saint John City (a provincial district) elected two members from 1795 to 1973.
Nova Scotia 1864 the MLAs who would decide on Confederation were elected in 1864, mostly in MMDs of two or three seats each, some in SMDs.
1867 most MLAs were elected in two-seat districts and there were two three-seat districts.
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Some federal ridings soon were MMDs, some as soon as the province in which they were located joined Confederation:
Halifax in NS was two-seat district as of time NS joined Confederation. Actually the British North America Act sets out that Halifax would have two members. Halifax stayed an MMD until 1968. Cape Breton and Pictou became MMDs too shortly after Confederation.
St. John City and County in NB became two-seat district shortly after NB joined Confederation. Stayed MMDs until 1896.
Ottawa and Hamilton, in Ontario, became two-seat districts shortly after ON joined Confederation. West Toronto soon followed. Ottawa stayed an MMD until 1933.
Victoria in BC was two-seat district as of time BC joined Confederation. Stayed an MMD until 1904.
the three ridings in PEI were two-seat district as of time PEI joined Confederation, stayed MMDs until 1896. The Queen's riding was again an MMD from 1904 to 1966.
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Later join-ers to Confederation (date of joining in brackets):
BC (1870) first election elected almost all its members in MMDs. mostly 2-seat districts but also three-seat districts and one 4-seat district. about 25 percent of the MLAs would be elected in MMDs in each election until 1990
NWT (1870) Qu'Appelle, Edmonton, Prince Albert and Calgary elected two members in an election or two in the 1880s.
(two parts of the NWT, Alberta and Sask, became provinces in 1905: first used SMDs, but Edmonton and Calgary were changed to two-seat districts in 1909. Sask used MMDs starting in 1920.
Manitoba (1871) used only SMDs until 1914. But then used MMD(s) in Winnipeg, 1914-1955. St. Boniface was an MMD 1949-1955
PEI (1873) elected all its members in MMDs until 1996
NFLD and Lab (1949): three 2-seats districts (and some SMDs) in 1949 and 1951. Harbour Main - Bell Island remained an MMD 1955-1975.
=========================== So you see, as of Confederation in 1867, and as new provinces and a Territory were brought into Confederation or shortly after that happened, voters voted in MMDs at both the provincial/territorial and federal levels.
immediately in the case of NB, NS, BC, PEI and NL soon (by 1890) in the case of NWT and Ontario. prior to 1910 in the cases of Yukon and Alberta prior to 1915 in the case of Manitoba prior to 1921 in the case of Saskatchewan. Only in Quebec (and Nunavut) have voters never voted in MMDs since 1867. Only in Nunavut have voters never ever voted in MMDs.
So single-winner FPTP is not the only way we have voted since Confederation, despite what some people say about that system being both the tradition and the only system of voting constitutionally possible in Canada.
Starting in 1867, some federal ridings, Nova Scotia provincial elections and New Brunswick provincial elections used MM districts. Each used at least one MM district for a hundred years or more (to 1966, 1973 and 1978 respectively).
BC joined Confederation in 1871, and from that year until 1990 it elected almost all or at least some of its MLAs in MM districts.
PEI joined Confederation in 1873, and from then to 1996 all its MLAs were elected in MM districts. (Below it is described last as it was the last province to use MMs.)
The Ontario provincial elections of 1886 and 1890 used an MM district.
The Alberta provincial election of 1909 used two MM districts, and from then until 1956 every election used at least one MM district.
The Manitoba provincial election of 1914 used an MM district. From then on to 1952, Manitoba used at least one MM district in each election.
Saskatchewan provincial elections from 1920 to 1967 used three MM districts.
Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation in 1949 and from then until 1975 that province used at least one MM district in each of its elections.
Elections in the North-West Territories also used MMDs. Three districts elected multiple members 1886-1891.
Yukon also used MMDs from 1900 when it elected two at-large to 1903, then again from 1909 to 1920 (five districts each electing two members).
Most of these multi-member districts elected only two members (so not lots of room for proportionality)
but some elected as many as five and one elected ten repeatedly.
Most of these districts used Block Voting where each voter could cast multiple votes so in those cases the District Magnitude (number of members) was mostly two and never exceeded six in number.
But under STV, each voter cast just one vote and the number of members in these districts was two in just a few cases and mostly ranged from five to ten.
The experiences of each of the provinces and territories are described below.
Order of the discussion
The next sections will discuss the use of MMDS in:
Quebec (pre-Confederation), Federal ridings, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, BC, Ontario, North-West Territories, Yukon, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and PEI.
QUEBEC
Quebec stands out for never using MM districts after 1867 and also for having a known history of dis-proportional election results. (Other provinces also have suffered unfair elections but they don’t talk about it!)
Quebec elections seem to have a reputation for dis-proportional results. Examples are the 1966 wrong-winner result, the 1970 false-majority result, and the 1998 wrong-winner and false-majority result.
(see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly_of_Quebec#Elections)
Quebec seems to be the only province not to have had multi-member districts ever since 1867. (The unitary character of single-winners in FPTP may have reflected the authoritarian nature of the province's political culture of that time.)
Prior to Confederation, Quebec did use MM districts -- when it was a colony from 1792 to 1838 and 1840 to 1867 when it was part of the United Province.
From 1792 to 1829 most of its colonial legislators (members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada) were elected in two-member districts. Only four were elected in single-member districts --
It seems there was some adjustment in 1830 but MM districts remained in use.
1834 -- The general election of 1834 allowed voters in Lower Canada
to choose 88 deputies representing 46 districts - four single-member districts and 42 2-seat districts.
The single-member districts used in 1834 were
Drummond, Megantic, Montmorency, William-Henry.
The two-member districts used in 1834 were:
1 Beauce 2
2 Beauharnois 2
3 Bellechasse 2
4 Berthier 2
5 Bonaventure 2
6 Chambly 2
7 Champlain 2
8 Deaux-Montaignes 2
9 Dorchester 2
10 Gaspe 2
11 Kamouraska 2
12 Lacadie 2
13 Lachanaie 2
14 Laprairie 2
15 L'Assomption 2
16 L'Islet 2
17 Lotbiniere 2
18 Mississiguoi
19 Montreal County 2
20 Montreal East 2
21 Montreal West 2
22 Nicolet 2
23 Orleans 2
24 Ottawa 2
25 Portneuf 2
26 Quebec County 2
27 Quebec Lower Town 2
28 Quebec Upper Town
29 Riochelieu
30 Rimouski
31 Rouville
32 Saguenay
33 Saint-Hyacinth
34 Saint-Maurice
35 Shefford
36 Sherbrooke
37 Stanstead
38 Terrebonne
39 Trois-Rivieres
40 Vaudreuil
41 Vercheres
42 Yamaska
(Drummond and Montmorency were made into two-member districts in 1836.)
The Mackenzie-Papineau rebellions occurred in 1837 and elected government was suspended.
in 1840 the Province of Canada was formed through merger of Upper Canada/Canada West (Ontario) and Lower Canada/Canada East (Quebec). First election of the Legislative Assembly of the united province was in April 1841.
Each of Canada East and Canada West elected 42 members.
In Canada East, Montreal and Quebec City had two members each.
In Canada West, Toronto had two members.
By 1858, Montreal and Quebec City were three-member districts. Prior to the 1861 election of 7th Parliament, it was split into three single-member districts.
Toronto continued as a two-seat district until 1861 (election of 7th Parliament) when it was split into two single-member districts.
At the time of separate provincehood/Confederation in 1867, Quebec and Ontario were using single-member districts with districts being divided and sub-divided as the number of members increased.
Quebec never again used multi-member districts, but Ontario did - Toronto and Ottawa were multi-member districts at various times between 1886 and 1914.
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Multi-member Federal Ridings
From 1867 to 1968, MPs represented one or more two-seat districts.
These two-member ridings were:
Halifax 1867 to 1968 (last election 1965) (the first and the last riding to have multiple members)
Victoria, BC 1871-1904 (1871 under the name Victoria District)
Ottawa 1872 to 1933
Cape Breton, N.S. 1872-1903
Pictou, N.S.1872-1903
St. John City and County, N.B. 1872-1896
Hamilton, Ontario 1872-1903
In PEI:
King's County 1873-1896;
Prince County 1873-1896.
Queen's County 1873-1896; under name Queen's 1904-1968 (one of the last ridings in Canada to have MM)
West Toronto (Toronto West) 1892-1904.
That the Halifax riding would have two members is laid out in the British North America Act of 1867. (section 40.3, https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/constitution/lawreg-loireg/p1t11.html)
The method of voting is not mentioned but presumably it was assumed that each voter would have as many votes as the number of members to be elected. That is the way that voting was conducted in federal elections anyway, until the last MM ridings were disbanded in 1968. (The first break with this rule anywhere in Canada was in 1886 in the provincial district of Toronto (Limited Voting).)
The reason for the creation of some of these two-member ridings was to simply increase the seat count (representation) for a city without having to create two single-member districts.
In other cases, they were used to allow a Liberal voter to give one vote to a Catholic Liberal candidate and one to a Protestant Liberal candidate; Conservatives likewise.
Victoria, BC federal riding
In Victoria, BC, religious equity does not seem to have been the reason. Two Liberals were elected in 1871, 1872, and 1874.
The ability of a MMD to reflect religious diversity was shown by Victoria‘s first two MPs consisting of Henry Nathan, the first Jew to sit in the House of Commons, and the eccentric Amor De Cosmos.
In 1878, Victorians elected both the colourful Liberal Amor De Cosmos and Conservative powerhouse John A. Macdonald. This was followed by two Conservatives 1882-1891.
In all these multi-seat federal districts, election was by Block Voting.
In most of these elections one party took both seats in the district.
The same held true for MM districts in BC for most of the time when that province had MM districts at the provincial level. In most (or a great many) cases, one party took all the seats in each MM provincial district. This was the result of using Block Voting - If each voter could cast no more than one vote, one-party sweep is seldom the result.
Federal ridings discussed in book Voting in Canada
I came across a study of MM districts used in federal elections -
Norman Ward "Voting in Two-member Constituencies"
in Voting in Canada (edited by John C. Courtney), 1967.
11 ridings had two members in all or part of the 1867 to 1968 period.
Block Voting was used in these districts.
The last two (Halifax and Queen's in PEI) were divided into single-member districts in 1968.
Looking at the individual elections in each of those MM districts, Ward found in most cases (53 out of 62) all the seats went to just one party,
Only in eight or nine was mixed representation elected.
Some see this as reason to convert two-member districts to single-member districts but actually it is the reason to convert from Block Voting to single voting, which comes in three main varieties:
Single Non-Transferable Voting, Single Transferable Voting or list PR.
SNTV has never been used in Canada but it shows benefits over FPTP and Block Voting in Vanuatu national elections for example.
STV proved itself a success in elections in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg for 30 years.
List PR may seem an odd choice for a voting system at the district level but it works well both at-large as Netherland uses it or in districts as Denmark uses it. (Denmark also uses nation-wide top-up seats.)
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Nova Scotia
1758 Nova Scotia held the first government election in what would be Canada. Interestingly, this first Canadian election was held using multi-member districts:
4 members from Halifax Township, 2 members from Lunenburg Township, and 16 members from the province at large, for a total of 22 members.
Voters actually had to cast as many votes as the seats to fill if they did not want their ballot disqualified. so the vote for the province at large members entailed counting votes that totalled 16 times the number of voters.
In colonial Canada, appointed officials often outnumbered elected ones. it was not until 1847 that elected members in Nova Scotia took the reins of government out of the hands of appointed colonial officials. And over the next 25 years NS achieved several other leaps forward in democratic accountability.
1854 NS was the first colony in British North America to extend the right to vote to all adult male subjects, resident in the colony for five years or more, even those who did not own property.
1870 NS adopted secret voting. This was the second provincial election after NS joined Confederation.
For much of its history, NS used a mixture of single-member districts and multi-member districts.
In 1867 only a few of its MLAs were elected in single-member districts. Most were elected in two-member districts, and two districts - Halifax and Pictou - elected three members each. The 1867 election was a tight two-party contest. With Block Voting used, almost every MM district elected a one-party sweep of the district seats. Only Inverness and Cumberland elected a MLA of each party. The Confederation Party, by its vote count, was due 15 of the province’s 38 seats but only won a seat in Inverness and one in Cumberland.
MM districts would be a feature of NS elections until 1978. Since 1981 NS has been using only single-member districts.
Cape Breton elected two members from 1867 to 1916, four members 1916-1925. Prior to the 1925 election, the district was broken up. Two of its successors, Cape Breton East and Cape Breton West, elected 2 members from 1925 to 1933.
Yarmouth elected two members from 1867 to 1933, one MLA 1933-1949, two MLAs 1949 to 1981 and one MLA in each election since 1981.
Colchester was a two-member district from 1867 to 1978, then broken up and converted into single-member districts before the 1978 election.
Inverness elected two members from 1867 to 1981. In 1981 it was broken up into two separate single-member districts. The Inverness district was re-formed in 1993 but was given only one member.
The 1920 and 1925 elections appear to have been the high point of the use of MM districts in Nova Scotia. Every district elected multiple members, through Block Voting.
At least two members were elected in each district.
Some districts elected more than two:
Cumberland and Pictou elected three members.
Cape Breton elected four members in 1920. (As two districts, it elected four in 1925 as well.)
Halifax elected five members.
In 1925, Cumberland elected mixed representation - the single Labour candidate in the district was elected. As well, the district elected two Liberal-Conservatives, one the incumbent Farmer MLA.
Cape Breton
The Cape Breton district elected two members to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1867 to 1916.
In 1916 and 1920 the Cape Breton district elected four members. In 1920, Cape Breton elected three Independent-Labour and a Farmer-Labour candidate.
In 1920, when it had four MLAs, Block Voting inflated the vote count. Cape Breton voters cast 73,000 votes. After the break-up into three districts, with each voter casting no more than two votes, the total vote count went down to 59,000. In each case likely about the same number of voters (25,000 to 30,000) voted.
Before the next election (1925), the Cape Breton district was broken up. So was the neighbouring district of Richmond.
Their successors, Cape Breton East, Cape Breton Centre and Richmond-West Cape Breton, each elected 2 members from 1925 to 1933.
In 1925 the Liberal-Conservatives won a clean sweep of the seats.
Cape Breton East elected two members from 1925 to 1933. (Two Liberal-Conservatives sat as members for the district during this time.)
Cape Breton Centre elected two members from 1925 to 1933. (Two Liberal-Conservatives sat as members for the district during this time.)
Richmond-Cape Breton West elected two members from 1925 to 1933. (Two Liberal-Conservatives, then two Liberals, sat as members for the district during this time.)
In 1933 these districts were broken up and replaced by five single-member districts.
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1949 Nova Scotia general election
27 single-member districts and five MM districts: Yarmouth, Colchester, Inverness, Lunenburg and Kings.
Each MM elected a two-seat sweep for a single party.
Since 1981 NS has been using only single-member districts.
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New Brunswick
New Brunswick had a long and extensive use of multi-member districts.
NB used Block Voting in each of its MM districts each time, and the result was usually one-party sweeps.
Of the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick had the most thought-out scheme of MM districts. The districts were based on county boundaries, so the districts had organic actual boundaries on the ground (as opposed to the arbitrary artificial boundaries of single-member districts elsewhere). The varying population figures of the counties was compensated by varying the number of seats in the districts.
From 1926 to 1967, each of the province's 15 counties was a district. The cities of Saint John and Moncton were districts in their own rights. These 17 districts elected members using Block Voting.
Under the redistribution of 1967, all six of New Brunswick's cities became electoral districts, and Saint John County was split into two districts, each electing one MLA. This was the first time since 1946 that there were some single-member districts in NB.
The 1974 election was the first time in NB’s history that every district returned only one member using the FPTP system.
New Brunswick used MM districts from 1867 to 1973.
There were occasionally single-member districts as well, but members elected in MM districts predominated in the NB elections. Sometimes only a handful of members were elected in single-member districts. However, despite the potential of the MM districts that covered most of the province, New Brunswick elections were plagued by one-party sweeps of the districts, caused by the Block Voting system that was in use.
Saint John City 1795-1973 (under name St. John Centre 1967-1973)
The Saint John district dates back to pre-Confederation 1700s. It elected multiple members in each election from the date of its creation to 1973 -- two members prior to 1892 and four members from 1892 to 1973. They were elected using the block voting system
1895 New Brunswick election
2 1-seat 8 2-seat 1 3-seat 5 4-seat
Total 41 members
Single-seat
Victoria
Madawaska
2-seat
St. John County
Queens
Sunbury
Kent
Gloucester
Carleton
Restigouche
Albert
3-seat
Kings
4-seat
York
Westmorland
Charlotte
Northumberland
St. John City
1944 election had just one single-member district - Moncton.
1948 election no single-member seats
There would be no single-member seats again until 1967. Seven years after that, there would be only one type of district – single-member districts. MM districts were abolished in 1973.
1948 election
The election was held using 17 districts, electing between two and five members each, through Block Voting.
Carleton, which elected 2 Progressive-Conservatives and a Liberal, was the only district where mixed representation was produced. The rest each produced one-party sweeps.
From 1948 to 1967 all the MLAs were elected in multi-member districts.
1967 Northumberland was a MM district. The NDP made its first NB appearance in this district running three candidates, and electing none.
1967
4 single-member districts 4
7 2-seat district 14
6 3-seat district 18
3 4-seat district 12
2 5-seat district 10
Total 58
1970
4 1-seat district 4
7 2-seat district 14
6 3-seat district 18
3 4-seat district 12
2 5-seat district 10
Total 58
Single-seat districts
Saint John West
Bathurst
Campbellton
Edmundston
2-seat districts
Queens - 1 Lib 1 P-C mixed rep.
Fredericton
Victoria
Saint John East
Albert
Sunbury 2 P-Cs
York 2 members 1970 P-Cs took both
3-seat districts
Carleton
Kings 3 Liberals
Moncton
Madawaska
Restigouche
Kent
4-seat districts
Saint John Centre 3 P-Cs, 1 Liberal mixed rep
Westmorland - 4 Liberals
Charlotte 4 P-Cs
5-seat districts
Gloucester
Northumberland 5 Liberal
In 1973 New Brunswick changed to single-member districts, electing through First Past The Post. New Brunswick has never used MM district since that time.
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British Columbia
Prior to 1990, British Columbia had many multi-member districts.
At one time (1870s) BC elected almost all of its MLAs in MM districts. Otherwise, there always were some single-member districts but these were used in conjunction with districts electing two, three, four, five and occasionally six members.
BC used Block Voting in each MM district, except for the 1952 and 1953 elections.
The 1952 and 1953 elections were special cases. Alternative Voting was used, with each seat being filled independently in separate elections.
The largest of the multi-member districts were to be found in the metropolitan areas of Vancouver and Victoria, but much of the province had multi-member districts at some time between 1871 and 1990.
Generally, one in four MLAs were elected from multi-member districts for most of the 1871-1986 period.
In 1986, just shy of half the members were elected in MM districts. This was the last election to use MM districts.
Only in the 1991 general election and ever since were all the BC MLAs elected in single-member districts.
Here are some highlights of BC's use of MM districts:
1871-1878 12 districts electing 25 members
3 SMDs, 6 2-member districts, 2 3-seat districts, 1 4-seat district (Victoria City)
of 25 total members, only 3 were elected in SMDs
1898 29 districts electing 38 members
24 SMDs, 3 2-member district, 2 4-seat districts (Vancouver City, Victoria City)
of 38 total members, 14 elected in MMDs
(All four seats in Vancouver City went to Opposition candidates in 1898
all four seats in Victoria City went to government candidates in 1898.)
1903-1912 34 districts electing 42 members
31 SMDs, 1 2-member district,
1 4-seat district (Victoria City), 1 5-member district (Vancouver City)
of 42 total members, 11 elected in MMDs
(All five seats in Vancouver City went to Conservative candidates in 1903.
All four seats in Victoria City went to Liberal candidates in 1903.)
1916-1933 39 districts electing 47 members
37 SMDs, 1 4-seat district (Victoria City), 1 6-member district (Vancouver City)
of 47 total members, 10 were elected in MMDs
Five of the six seats in Vancouver City in 1916 went to Liberal candidates.
One seat went to a Conservative.
The Liberal party ran a full slate.
The unsuccessful Liberal candidate was Patrick Donnelly, perhaps a Catholic, definitely an Irishman - Ireland was neutral in WWI at the time.
The four seats in Victoria City in 1916 went to Liberal candidates.
1933 39 districts electing 47 members
34 SMDs 3 2-member districts, 1 3-seat district, 1 4-seat district
of 47 total members, 13 were elected in MMDs
1934-1937 40 districts electing 48 members
35 SMDs 3 2-member districts, 1 3-seat district, 1 4-seat district
of 48 total members, 13 were elected in MMDs
1941-1953 41 districts electing 48 members
36 SMDs 3 2-member districts, 2 3-seat districts
of 48 total members, 12 were elected in MMDs
1956-1963 41 districts electing 52 members
33 SMDs, 6 2-member districts, 2 3-seat districts.
of 52 total members, 18 elected in MMDs
1966-1975 48 districts electing 55 members
41 SMDs, 7 2-member district,
of 55 total members, 14 elected in MMDs
1979-1983 50 districts electing 57 members
43 SMDs, 7 2-member districts
of 57 total members, 14 elected in MMDs
1986 52 districts electing 69 members
35 SMDs, 17 2-member districts
of 69 total members, 34 were elected in MMDs (just shy of half)
(from Electoral History of BC elections 1871-1986
Party identification was not used generally prior to 1903, so whether representation elected in a district was mixed or not, and proportional or not, cannot easily be determined in most cases.
The first Labour MLA was certainly elected in 1894 (although an earlier success, in 1886, is sometimes stated). Robert Macpherson, running on behalf of the pro-nationalization Nationalist Party, was elected In 1894 in Vancouver City. The other MLA elected there was a reform-minded newspaperman.
Block Voting in BC's MM districts
Each voter was allowed to cast as many votes as there were seats to fill in BC's multi-seat districts. (Electoral History of BC, p. 5)
The effect of Block Voting is shown clearly in 1966 in Vancouver Burrard -
the two SC candidates got the same number of votes (7584). The SC voters apparently voted solidly for the two SC candidates, giving both of their votes to the two and to no others. The two NDP candidates each got more than 9000 votes (although a slightly different number). The NDP won both seats.
That election also saw one-party sweeps in the multi-seat districts of Vancouver Centre, Vancouver East, Vancouver Little Mountain, Vancouver Point Grey, Vancouver South and Victoria.
But occasionally two parties shared the seats in a MM district in BC.
For example, Vancouver-Point Grey elected a Liberal MLA and a SC MLA in 1974, and a SC MLA and an NDP MLA in 1986.
BC dropped its MM Districts after 1986. More on that later (in part 3).
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Ontario
Toronto was a three-member district in 1886 and 1890.
Toronto had four districts and each district elected two members 1908-1914.
Ottawa elected two members 1894-1914.
Since 1872, the federal ridings of Ottawa 1872 and Hamilton had been two-member ridings. Block voting was used to fill the seats. In most of the elections one party made a clean sweep of the city seats.
By the late 1880s, it was seen that under Block Voting, the largest group could take all the seats, leaving all other groups without representation. The first alternative to the multiple plurality system that was used in Canada was Limited Voting. This was back in the 1800s!
Limited Voting in Canadian history was used to elect Toronto MLAs, from 1886 to 1894. The Toronto district was given three seats, and each voter could cast just two votes. (This is the only use of Limited Voting in Canadian elections.)
Under Limited Voting, each party did not not run more than two candidates, for fear of splitting their votes, so mixed representation was produced in each contest in the Toronto district in 1886 and 1890. No one party took all the seats.
Following this experience. the district was broken up into four single-member districts - North Toronto, East Toronto, West Toronto and South Toronto.
In 1908, these four districts were each given a second seat. In the two elections when these districts were MM districts, the seats were filled through separate seat/post elections. The separate elections made it less glaringly obvious that the largest group - and only the largest group - took both seats.
The Conservative party took all eight seats in 1908 and 1911.
In 1914, the Toronto districts were re-named but remained two-seat districts, with two new districts also being added. In 1926, the two-seat districts were divided into single-member districts. Since then, Ontario never again has had a multi-member district at the provincial level.
After the United Farmers were elected government in 1919, there was a proposal to group Toronto districts into a MM district and to have the city’s members elected through STV but it did not go forward. (Proportional Representation Review, April 1923)
Ottawa provincial district - Block Voting, 1894 to 1908
Despite Toronto’s experience with Limited Voting, Block Voting was used to fill the two seats in the capital city when the Ottawa provincial district was a MM district from 1894 to 1908, starting just after Toronto’s Limited Voting experience ended.
Block Voting meant mostly one–party sweeps in the next four elections - and about double the number of votes to count than would have been cast under STV.
1894 two Liberals filled the seats
1898 one Liberal and one Conservative
1902 two Conservatives
1905 two Liberals.
Ottawa was divided into two single-member districts in 1908.
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North-West Territories
Edmonton elected two members in 1888
Prince Albert elected two members in 1888
Calgary elected two members in 1886, 1888, 1891
Elections were held using Block Voting. Such a system meant that about twice the votes needed to be counted as there were voters who voted, and the largest group often took both seats.
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Yukon
Yukon used MMDs from 1900 (when it elected two at-large) to 1905, then again from 1909 to 1920 (five districts each electing two members).
1900 two elected at-large (as well, 6 men were appointed to the Council)
This election of just two members was the smallest general election in the history of Canada.
1903 District 1 elected two; District 2 elected two; Whitehorse elected one
The MMDs were large (each covering almost half the Territory)
(five Council members were appointed as well)
1905, 1907 five SMDs
1909, 1912, 1915, 1917 five MMDs covered the Territory, each electing two members
(no members were appointed to council hereafter)
With decline in activity in Territory due to the passing of the Gold Rush, council dropped to just three (elected in SMDs).
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Alberta
In company with the use of STV in Manitoba, Alberta's use of STV, 1924 to 1955, was the deepest use of PR anywhere in North America.
Multi-member districts are a critical part of STV, and prior to 1959, Alberta used one or more multi-member districts in every election except the province's first election in 1905.
At a high point in 1955, 13 Alberta MLAs were elected in MM districts. This was just a fraction of the province's 61 members but it is interesting to note that almost a third of the opposition members elected that year were elected in the two cities, which also elected its due share of government members.
The fairness of STV as compared to FPTP is shown starkly in the result of the 1952 election when six of the eight Opposition MLAs elected were from the cities although the cities' 13 seats were only about 21 percent of the province's seats while the mass bulk of seats (filled through single-winner Alternative Voting) produced only 2 opposition members. Each rural member was elected by a majority of the votes in the district but there was not any attempt at Proportionality outside the cites and the result shows this.
It is not true to say that in each use of MM district in Alberta, mixed balanced representation was elected. Without single voting, the largest group sometimes took all the seats. And the instances where voters cast multiple votes in districts where multiple members were elected, we see un-balanced representation again and again.
But when STV was used, there were no instances where one party took all of a district's seats.
Where STV was used, mixed representation did result each time. It is not ranked votes that produced this result. It was single voting in a multi-member district. This mixed representation was produced even in those instances where vote transfers made no difference in the result.
There were three instances between 1924 and 1955 when STV vote transfers made no change to the front runners established in the first count. In these cases the same people would have been elected under SNTV as under STV. But in each case the successful candidates were of a variety of parties - certainly not the guaranteed result under Block Voting or First Past the Post.
Multi-member Districts in Alberta
Bold shows mixed representation
2P means candidates of two parties were elected
3P means candidates of three parties were elected
4P means candidates of four parties were elected.
(L= Liberal C = Conservative Lab = Labour)
Calgary Edmonton Medicine Hat Army Voting system
used in MMDs
1905 (no MM districts)
1909 2 (1 L, 1 C) 2 (SMD) Block Voting
1913 (SMDs) 2 (SMD) Block Voting
1917* (SMDs) (SMDs) (SMD) 2* Block Voting
1921 5 (2 Lab, 1 L, 2 Ind) 5 (5 L) 2 (1UFA, 1Labour) Block Voting
1926 5 (4P) 5 (4P) 2 (1 L, 1C) STV
1930 6 (3P) 6 (4P) STV
1935 6 (3P) 6 (3P) STV
1940 5 (2P)* 5 (2P)* STV
1944 5 (3P) 5 (4P) STV
1948 5 (4P) 5 (3P) STV
1952 6 (3P) 7 (4P) STV
1955 6 (3P) 7 (3P) STV
1959 No MM districts from 1959 to the present
No attempt at proportionality was possible in single-member districts where there was no use of levelling seats
*1917 had a MM district only by virtue of the fact that the two army representatives elected overseas were elected through Block Voting in a two-seat district. One of the successful candidates was Nursing Sister Roberta McAdams, the second female legislator elected in the British Empire. She used the Block Voting system to her advantage - her campaign advice to the voters was “give one of your votes to the man of your choice and give the second to the sister”, and many of the soldiers did just that - she received the second vote of about a third of all the soldiers who voted.
* 1917 Army election was non-partisan.
Independent candidates (of two genders!) were elected.
Captain Robert Pearson went on to be re-elected in 1921 as an Independent (civilian) MLA. He called for proportional representation in legislative debates in the early 1920s, helping set the stage for the United Farmers government to pass legislation in that regard, just a couple years later.
* 1940 Social Credit (government) and anti-SC Fusion candidates were elected.
One-party sweeps in the above table:
1909 Edmonton elected two Liberals
1913 Edmonton elected two Liberals
1921 Edmonton elected five Liberals. Candidates of two genders were elected.
All these happened when Block Voting was used.
At no time when STV was used did one party take all the seats in a city.
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The end of STV
Following the 1955 election, the Alberta government dropped the MM districts and switched all of Alberta to single-member districts. It also switched from preferential voting to X voting and FPTP.
In the next election (1959), Edmonton experienced the first one-party sweep it had had since 1921. All the Edmonton seats were taken by Social Credit (government) candidates.
Between the 1955 and 1959 elections, the number of Edmonton seats was increased from 7 to 9. But if Edmonton had been under-represented during the STV period, that was no reason to change to single-member districts. Simply upping the number of seats in the Edmonton district would have addressed the issue. Nine is not an impossibly large number of members to elect through STV - Winnipeg had elected ten at a time through STV from 1920 to 1945.
It is sometimes said that Edmonton was under-represented in its non-FPTP electoral scheme. That seems to have been a thing that grew worse through the years.
Edmonton’s under-representation
1926
Edmonton 1926 20,000 valid votes 5 seats 4000 votes per seat
overall Alberta 1926 180,000 votes 61 seats 3000 votes per seat
Edmonton 1926 5 seats 8 percent of Alberta's overall seats
Edmonton 1926 20,000 votes 11 percent of Alberta's total votes
1948
Edmonton 1948 46,000 valid votes 5 seats 9200 votes per seat
overall Alberta 1948 300,000 votes 57 seats 5300 votes per seat
Edmonton 1948 5 seats 9 percent of Alberta's overall seats
Edmonton 1948 46,000 votes 15 percent of Alberta's total votes
1955
Edmonton 1955 77,000 votes 7 seats 11,000 votes per seat
overall Alberta 1955 380,000 votes 61 seats 5300 votes per seat
Edmonton 1955 7 seats 11 percent of Alberta's overall seats
Edmonton 1955 77,000 votes 20 percent of Alberta's total votes.
But the under-representation of the cities could have been addressed simply by giving Edmonton (and Calgary too) more seats. It did not necessarily mean the end of STV.
But the end of STV did mean the end of fair representation in Edmonton.
From the end of STV in 1956 to 1982, no CCF or NDP member was elected in Edmonton.
And other inequities were produced as well during the use of First Past The Post.
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Manitoba
Manitoba used a STV system in Winnipeg from 1920 to 1952 and the Alternative Vote in the rest of the province from 1927 to 1952. In company with the use of STV in Alberta, Manitoba's use of STV was the deepest use of PR anywhere in North America.
Prior to 1920, Winnipeg was a multi-member district as well.
1914 and 1915 Winnipeg MMD (two districts) Posts election system (seats filled through separate contests in MMD)
1920-1952 Winnipeg MMD STV was used
1920-1945 10-seat district
1949 and 1952 Winnipeg three four-seat districts.
St. Boniface 2-seat district
By the mid-1950s, Manitoba had grown unhappy with its electoral system, says Hoffman in The Gerrymander and the Commission …
Hoffman says “Unlike most other provinces at the time, Manitoba did not elect its MLAs in single-member districts under a first past-the-post system…”
That implies that most of the other provinces were electing all their MLAs in single-member districts using First Past The Post. But in the early 1950s, actually all the provinces excepting only Ontario and Quebec were electing all or at least some of their MLAs in MM districts.
In fact the early 1950s was a high point of the use of MM districts in Canada.
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Overall Canadian Use of Multi-Member Districts in 1950s
The early 1950s was a high point of the use of MM districts.
1952 Electoral Snapshot
About 25 percent of the provincial legislators across Canada were elected in MMDs.
In eight of the provinces, more than ten percent were elected in multi-member districts.
In seven of the provinces, more than 20 percent were elected in multi-member districts.
In five of the provinces, at least 25 percent (one in four) of the MLAs were elected in multi-member districts.
In two provinces, all the MLAs were elected in multi-member districts.
Total MLAs MMD MLAs Percent that were elected in MMDs
NL 28 6 21 percent
NS 37 10 27 percent
NB 52 52 100 percent
PEI 30 30 100 percent
QU 92 0 0 percent
ON 90 0 0 percent
MB 57 14 25 percent
SK 53 7 13 percent
AB 61 13 21 percent
BC 48 12 25 percent
Total 548 144 26 percent overall.
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Hoffman wrote that the use of STV in Manitoba had been a success in granting a political voice to small parties and breaking the control of party bosses.
But voters and politicians had grown dissatisfied with STV. Even though STV was used only partially, the distribution of the vote meant that no one party was taking a majority of the seats, even with the help given the leading party under Alternative Voting in the majority of the districts.
Under AV, a candidate must take a majority of the votes (either first preference or back-up preferences) but in most cases the elected candidate was the same as was leading in the First Count, with no representation accorded to the other parties just as they would be ignored under FPTP.
So STV, due to its democratic proportionality, had prevented the formation of a majority government in Manitoba. Dissatisfied with perpetual coalition governments, politicians looked to some other system of election. (Coalition governments are common in PR countries in Europe so it should not have been a problem. Is it at all likely that voters would be happier to see FPTP give majority government to a party that a majority of the voters did not vote for? Such “false-majority” governments are common under FPTP. Or would they prefer to see the election system produce the representation that the voters voted for?)
Progressive (United Farmers) took two majority governments in the 1920s, each time with but a minority of the votes. The Liberal-Progressive party was formed in the 1920s and took three majority governments, each time with but a minority of the votes. A broader coalition (which drew together the Liberal-Progressives and the Progressive-Conservatives) held power through the 1940s.
Hoffman wrote “Surprisingly, the public was open to the call for change, largely because the multi-member districts used in STV had prevented voters from being able to call any politician their own.” (But was that really a thing? It may have been more a problem of choosing which of the multiple members elected in your district the voter should turn to for help. An excess of choice!)
Voters were also said to be unhappy with the unequal populations between the multi-member districts.
It is generally said that voters (at least voters in Winnipeg) were unhappy about the rural-urban disparity. In each of the Winnipeg districts (Winnipeg Centre, Winnipeg North and Winnipeg South) electing four members, there were 47,000 voters and about 21,000 votes were cast. Spread over four members, that is about 5,000 per member.
In most of the single-member districts, fewer than 5000 votes were cast. But nine of the 43 single-member districts exceeded that number, thus receiving as many votes as were the portion for each city MLA. So the disparity does not seem so bad.
And anyways the use of MM districts made addressing this disparity easy - simply give each district more seats, with no re-drawing of districts necessary. But for some reason apparently this was not thought of.
As things worked out, the abolition of MM Districts and STV did not guarantee that a majority government would be produced anyway.
In 1958, no party took a majority of the seats. No party took more than 41 percent of the vote and FPTP did not produce a false-majority government. A minority Conservative government lasted just one year.
If Manitoba was plagued by coalition government under STV/IRV, after the return to FPTP that province continued to experience minority government, plus the added mis-representaton and minority elections of FPTP.
Under STV/AV, minority government had found common ground with other parties and had stayed in power the usual full number of years.
But after the return to FPTP, the P-C government thought it worth going to the polls early, hoping to win power through the kind of accidental results that FPTP produces.
And the scheme worked - the Conservatives won majority government with just 30,000 more votes than it had received a year earlier. Its vote count increased by 25 percent but its seat count went up by 40 percent. The opposition vote hardly dropped at all, just five percent, but the opposition seats were a full one-third less after the election than they had been in 1958.
(https://www.electionsmanitoba.ca/downloads/HistoricalResultsSummaries/1958.pdf)
Hoffman reports that the public and political elites were not happy with the abolition of multi-member districts and STV without additional reforms “as it would signal a return to the partisan gerrymanders of the past.”
Independent (non-partisan) reapportionment commissions were seen as the crucial ingredient in a return to single-member districts and the first-past-the-post system. The Electoral Divisions Amendment Act of 1955 provided for the creation of an independent commission comprised of the Chief Justice of Manitoba, the province's chief electoral officer, and the president of the University of Manitoba.
The commission was instructed to draw single-member districts on the basis of community of interests, means of communication (and transportation), the natural features of the province, municipal boundaries, and other similar factors.
However, the commission was instructed to allow disparity between urban and rural districts, with urban districts to contain seven voters for every four rural voters. Districts in each classification could only differ by plus or minus five percent. In 1968, the allowable urban/rural disparity was dropped (all districts henceforth were to be equal-sized). Discretion was allowed though - a variation of plus or minus 25 percent was allowed on the median size.
Variation of 25 percent plus or minus if combined means that on the basis of a 100-voter median, one district could have 125 and another 75. A ratio of 5 to 3. Not much different than the 7-to-4 ratio allowed under the 1955 legislation.
The permissible variance then became plus or minus 10 percent, although districts north of the 53rd Parallel could vary by as much as 25 percent. So with 100 as base, 110 or 90 or as few as 75 in the Northland.
But the signal achievement of Manitoba, now copied by all other provinces, was to remove politics from the drawing of the district boundaries.
We should extend that fairness by having as many MM districts as possible, so that we have as few boundaries, however drawn, as possible to divide the voters into small and arbitrary districts. Perhaps separating voters from their friends, from their neighbours and from their favoured candidates. And the small district can elect no more than one, forcing many, perhaps a majority, to have no representation at all under FPTP and ensuring only a bare majority under Alternative Voting.
And further, we should extend that move toward fairness by moving control over the electoral system away from politicians. Let’s form a citizen’s assembly or non-partisan commission that would decide on the system to be used. Let’s remove the power of politicians to set the rules under which their bosses (the voters) show their will - to hire or fire the governments.
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Saskatchewan
Three Saskatchewan provincial districts were MMDs from 1920 to 1967. These were Regina City, Saskatoon City and Moose Jaw City. Block Voting was used, under which each voter cast as many votes as there were seats. Usually one party took all the seats when the number of seats was less than five. When five members were elected, in Saskatoon City in 1964, mixed representation was elected.
Regina City elected two members 1921 to 1948, three members in 1952 and 1956, and four members in 1960. Only in one multi-seat contest (1925) was mixed representation elected.
Before the 1964 election, Regina City was divided into four districts. Two of these new districts - Regina East and Regina West - were two-member districts themselves. (If six seats were wanted for the Regina area, the existing Regina City could have elected all six in one district. With STV, PR would have been achieved at least in that district. But the District Magnitude was reduced to two at the most, with two MLAs of the Regina area elected in single-member districts.)
Under Block Voting, the Regina area elected 5 CCF and just one Liberal. No district elected MLAs of more than one party; in all four Regina districts, Block Voting and FPTP elected just one party, with no attempt at proportionality. The sole non-CCF MLA was elected in a single-member district - Regina South.
Before the 1967 election, all of Saskatchewan's multi-member districts were broken up and converted into single-member districts.
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Newfoundland and Labrador
From Newfoiundland's start as a colony with representative government Newfoundland had MMDs. 15 members elected in 9 districts, then in 1855 29 members elected in 15 districts.
1946 National Convention members to decide on Confederation or not: The members of the National Convention were elected in two three-seat districts in St. John, a two-seat district in Harbour Main, a two-seat district in Grand Falls, and some SMDs.
Newfoundland and Labrador had three MM districts in its history after joining Confederation.
St. John’s East 2 members 1949 and 1951
St. John’s West 2 members 1949 and 1951
Harbour Main-Bell Island (later known as Harbour Main) 2 members1949-1975
Each elected two members in each election in 1949 (when NL joined Confederation) and in 1951.
Harbour Main-Bell Island – Two Conservatives or two Liberals were elected each time except for the 1952 and 1959 elections.
After two Conservatives were elected in 1972 in the district, the Harbour Main district was disbanded and formed into two single-member districts. Since that change, Harbour Main has mostly elected Conservatives.
The winner in each of these single-member districts often won through plurality, leaving the majority of voters without representation.
In 1993 Liberal Don Whelan took the seat with less than half the votes in his district.
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Continued in part 3 of the multi-blog essay
The end of MMDs is described there.
also later remarks and observations
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/canada-federally-and-in-the-provinces-and-territories-used-multi-member-districts-part-3
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If you missed reading part 1 of this multi-blog article, see
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