Disproportional results in Canadian elections - federal and provincial according to Rand Dyck

from Rand Dyck's 1993 book Canadian Politics

from 1921 to 1988, in 19 of the 21 elections the party with most seats won more seats than it deserved, (this party was also likely the most-popular in votes)

while the second party received what it deserved only 10 times.

The CCF/NDP however time after time won only half the seats it deserved.

from 1921 to 1988 three times a party received a majority of votes (1940, 1958, and 1984) and also got majority of seats.

eight times no party got majority of votes and no party got majority of seats.

but in 10 elections a minority party took a majority of seats.

in three elections (1957, 1962, 1979) the party with the second-most-votes got more seats than the most-popular party and went on to form government.

the federal election also produced unbalanced results in discrete provinces and regions.

Conservative seats in Quebec (1986-1984) much lower than vote share in the province

when Conservatives got virtually no members in Quebec prior to 1984, they gained a non-French or anti-French image even though they usually received at least 13 percent of the popular vote in the province. (page 246)

Liberal vote in Western Canada  (1957-1988) much lower than vote share in the regions

so Liberals got anti-western party image even they usually got more than 20 percent of the western vote.

historically Conservatives ignored Quebec and Liberals ignored western Canada "which is not good for keeping the country together, one of the functions that political parties and elections are supposed to perform."

as well when Conservative governments did not include Quebec MPs the Quebec viewpoint was not represented as party set policy

Liberal policy tended to ignore western concerns because there were so few Liberals elected from western Canada.

this was stark fact when the party formed cbinets and had unbhd no MPs to draw on from Quebec or western Canada.

from 1962 to 1984 either Quebec or western Canada was effectively left out of national decision-making.

residents of those places that were omitted understandably felt that national policy did not reflect their interests (page 248)

[and this ultimately led to Alberta holding a quasi-separation referendum in 2026.]

NDP got image of being minor party because it seldom elected very many (getting about half of what it deserved) even though it was more than minor if you go by votes.

1988 Conservatives got more seats than they deserved including in Quebec.

using seat rather than vote shares produced a misinterpretation of Canada's history exaggerating the Liberal sweep in Quebec in 1896 (53 percent of the vote but 73 percent of the seats) and the

national Liberal victory in 1935 (45 percent of the vote but 71 percent of the seats).

such problems led to discussion of electoral reform [it had been going on since 1900 or even earlier actually]

including William Irvine Does Canada Need a New Electoral System? (1979)

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