Election Oddities - the running, the voting, the electing -- the odd and the quaint of past Canadian elections

Running in multiple districts was a thing

I believe it is still possible as a candidate does not need to live in the district where they run so no restriction on how many places you may run as far as I know.

Being elected to two districts at the same time:

Wilfred Laurier (1896) and at least one MLA (Cross in Alberta 1913) ran and were elected in two districts at the same time.

Cross actually represented both districts for the full term in office.

Running in more than one district is actually not the most extreme oddity of our political history -

Many districts in past held more than one member.

12 ridings at different times elected two MPs at a time.

Every province and two Territories used multi-member districts at one time or another. (Quebec in the pre-Confederation period only)

PEI never elected a MLA in a general election in single-member district until 1995. (I'll have to check this)

Only Nunavut has never used MMDs.

The district of Winnipeg set the record for Canada of electing 10 MLAs at a time in a single district for almost 30 years.

Usually these MMDs were city-wide districts.

Winnipeg was broken into four three-member districts in 1949. Those three districts also used in 1952.

Alberta in the early period when it was part of the NWT, was allowed a member for the Territorial Council in any place that had 1000 people in a 1000 square miles. Much of the Territorial district did not have that density so the people there had no elected representative.

Representing no exact district:

Alberta elected two military MLAs in WWI and three MLAs in WWII, by voters spread across Canada and Europe, and into Asia.

Army soldiers and nurses in WWI could vote in their home district even while overseas in the 1917 federal election. The charge was made that Borden's government placed the army vote where it would aid government candidates, and it seems likely as some Laurier candidates who won the civilian vote found themselves denied a seat when the army vote was counted.

Edmonton city elections never used single-winner First Past The Post prior to 2010, except for by-elections.

Edmonton also allowed non-residents to vote if they owned property in Edmonton.

And in the City of Strathcona (1907-1912), voters could cast different number of votes depending on how much property they owned.

Cities with different wards sometimes allowed voters to vote in any ward where they owned property. This gave some voters more votes than others.

Plural Voting where a voter could vote wherever he owned property. This gave some voters more votes than others -- PEI in early 1900s.

Block Voting election system where voter could cast as many votes as the number of members to be elected -

five members (and five votes for each voter) being the record for this type of election.

Single Transferable Voting (STV) election system used at provincial level in Alberta and Manitoba - the deepest experience of PR in Canada and U.S. too.

multiple members elected in a district but each voter had just one vote but could mark back-up preferences using a preferential ballot.

Ranked voting in the form of the Instant-Runoff Voting election system was used in Alberta, Manitoba to elect one member in a district.

Ranked voting in the form of the Instant-Runoff Voting election system was used in BC to elect one member in a district, and in those same elections (1952, 1953) IRV was used in multi-member districts, by conducting separate contests to elect each of the members in the same district.

First Past The Post was used in multi-member districts, by conducting separate contests to elect each of the members in the same district - Winnipeg in 1914.

Cumulative Voting (each voter had multiple votes and could lump them on one candidate) -- Toronto city officials 1900-ish

Limited Voting (each voter had two voters in contest electing three members) -- Toronto 1886, 1890

PEI districts where some voters could vote for one member and a different number of voters could vote for a different member, both members to serve in same chamber -- 1870 to 1995

Elections where women could vote but not run as candidates...

and elections where women ran anyway.

Men in BC voting in a 1916 referendum about whether or not to extend the vote to women - they voted yes.

Un-elected officials sitting in legislative chambers in colonial and Territorial administrations

Various voting methods -- using Xs, numbers, coloured pencils, oral vote.

Printed ballot and ballots where the voter had to write preferred candidate's name.

By-elections using X; by-elections using numbers (the ranked vote)

Louis Riel, while on the run, was elected MP twice in a Manitoba district but was never able to sit in the House of Commons for fear of incarceration. It is said he ventured into the Parliament Building and signed his names as MP, then hightailed it out of there before authorities got on to him.

Alberta voters voting to choose people for appointment as Senators

Referendums on a variety of subjects from drinking and gambling to conscription, separation from Canada, and constitutional arrangements.

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