Failures of First Past The Post

Here's some FPTP "democratic disasters". We can organize the FPTP failings into categories:

False majorities every one of the majority governments in the Canadian Hof C since 1921 have been false majorities except 1940, 1958 and 1984.

It is estimated that 72 percent of FPTP elections produce majority government while only 10 percent of PR elections produce majority governments. (Blais and Carty (1988))

Of course note that when PR election produces majority government, more than likely it is a majority government elected by a majority of votes cast.

So if FPTP is defended on grounds that it produces majority governments, we see that in almost a third of elections it does not do the job. (This point was made in The Debate over Electoral Systems by Andre Blais (1991) available for downloading online))

provincially Alberta Many times an Alberta party has taken less than a majority of the votes and was still elected to a majority of the seats in the legislature

false majority governments elected in FPTP elections

During Social Credit era 1967 During Conservative era 1971, 1989, 1993, 2004, 2012

During NDP era 2015 Ontario 2022 -- Conservatives got 2/3 of the seats with 2/5ths of the vote. definitely false majority.

100 percent of seats taken by one party

never in federal elections

one-party sweeps in provincial elections: New Brunswick in 1987 McKenna's Liberals won 100% of the seats (58) with 60% of the popular vote. PEI in 1935

A single party making a province-wide sweep of HofC seats: FPTP exaggerates the political complexion of different sections of the country. Saskatchewan 2021 election 14 seats - -- Conservatives took all 14 seats with 64 percent of the vote. Liberals (12 percent of the vote), NDP (20 percent of votes) and Greens (3 percent of the vote) took no seats PEI 2021 4 seats -- Liberals took all 4 seats with 44 percent of the vote. Conservatives (27 percent of the vote), NDP (8 percent of votes) and Greens (21 percent of the vote) took no seats PEI 2000 4 seats -- Liberals took all 4 seats, with 47 percent of the vote. Conservatives (38 percent of the vote) and NDP (9 percent of votes) took no seats In the 2000 election, Quebec, PEI and Nova Scotia elected all Liberals. In all these provinces a very considerable percentage of votes went to the other parties and these voters then had no representation. Alberta and Saskatchewan 2008 Conservative sweep Conservative sweep of all Alberta seats in every election from 1993 to 2008

One party sweep of a whole metropolis

one party sweep of Toronto seats 1921 federal election -- Toronto elected nine Conservatives while under STV five Conservatives and four Liberals would likely have been elected. one party sweep of Montreal seats 1921 federal election -- Montreal elected 12 Liberal MPs while under STV nine Liberals and three Conservatives would likely have been elected.

Near-total sweeps of all of a province's seats - BC 2001 77 seats to 2 opposition members with 57.6 percent of votes received by the 77.

2019 federal election Nova Scotia 7 seats - -- Liberals took 6 seats, all but one in the province, with 41 percent of the vote. Conservatives (26 percent of the vote) took one seat. NDP (19 percent of votes) and Greens (11 percent of the vote) took no seats Newfoundland and Labrador 7 seats - -- Liberals took 6 seats, all but one in the province, with 45 percent of the vote. NDP (24 percent of the vote) took one seat. Conservatives (28 percent of votes) and Greens (3 percent of the vote) took no seats Alberta 34 seats - -- Conservatives took 33 seats, all but one in the province, with 69 percent of the vote. NDP (12 percent of the vote) took one seat. Liberal (14 percent of votes) and Greens (3 percent of the vote) took no seats Ontario 2000 federal election 103 seats -- Liberals took 100 seats, all but three in the province, with 52 percent of the vote. Alliance (24 percent) took two seats; NDP (8 percent) took 1 seat. Conservatives (14 percent of the vote) took no seats. 1911 federal election Ontario 86 seats - Conservatives (56 percent of the vote) took 71 seats. Liberals (31 percent of the vote) took 14 seats - proportionally they were due 27 MPs. BC 7 seats - Conservative total sweep. Conservatives (59 percent of the vote) took all the seats. Liberals (38 percent of the vote) took no seats. Alberta 7 seats - Liberals near total sweep. Liberals took 6 seats, all but one of the province's seats, with 53 percent of the vote. Conservatives (39 percent of the vote) took one seat; NDP (8 percent) took 1 seat. Saskatchewan 10 seats - Liberals took 9 seats, all but one of the province's seats, with 59 percent of the vote. Conservatives (39 percent of the vote) took one seat - proportionally they were due 3 MPs.

Party in power in Ottawa does not secure at least one seat in each of the provinces In these cases, the province could not be represented in the federal cabinet until a by-election or the next election secured a change. Alberta 1921 federal election 12 seats -- all seats taken by just two parties but neither party were in power in the HofC.

Alberta elected all UFA and Labour candidates. Alberta elected no Liberals.

Alberta Liberals un-represented for 31 years

Alberta elected no Liberal MP 1958-1963, 1965-1968, 1972-1993, 2006-2015, 2019 to present.

In those years the Liberals were in power 1965-1968, 1972-1979, 1980-1984, 1993 to 2006, 2019 to the present. In those five periods, a total of 31 years, Alberta did not have direct representation in the federal cabinet. This included the years when Pierre Trudeau tried to create a National Energy Plan. It failed. To this day, Canada is the only major country without a national energy plan (or so I have heard).

Alberta suffered unbalanced federal representation Alberta almost always experienced total or near-total one-party sweeps of its federal seats. 1911 7 seats - Liberals took 6 seats, all but one of the province's seats, with 53 percent of the vote. Conservatives (39 percent of the vote) took one seat. 1921 12 seats - United Farmers took ten seats. Labour took two seats, both in Calgary. Conservatives and Liberals took no seats. 1958 17 seats -- Progressive-Conservatives took all 17 seats, with 60 percent of the vote. Liberals (14 percent of the vote) and CCF (4 percent of votes) took no seats 1972 to 1988 Progressive-Conservatives took clean one-party sweeps of the Alberta seats, each time. Alberta 1988 Progressive-Conservatives 26 seats -- Progressive-Conservatives took 25 seats, all but one of the Alberta seats, with 52 percent of the vote. NDP (17 percent of the vote) took one seat. Liberals (14 percent of votes) and Reform (15 percent of the vote) took no seats. Alberta 1997 26 seats -- Reform took 24 seats, all but two in the province, percent of the vote. Liberals took only two seats. Conservatives (14 percent of the vote) and NDP (6 percent of votes) took no seats Alberta 2000 26 seats -- Alliance took 23 seats, all but three of the province's seats, with only 59 percent of the vote. Liberals (21 percent of the vote) took only two seats. Conservatives (14 percent of the vote) took one. NDP (5 percent of votes) took no seats.

Minority rule - Minority representation the wrong way FPTP does not produce representation of any minority group in a district unless it represents only a minority, and sometimes that minority is quite small. 2014 Toronto city election Ward 16 (Eglinton-Lawrence) the successful candidate, Christin Carmichael Greb, received less than 18 percent of the vote. More than 82 percent of the voters were ignored, their will frustrated. 1944 Alberta election Army representative -- the successful candidate received less than 18 percent of the vote. 82 percent of the voters were ignored, their will frustrated. Majority of the district vote frustrated in many districts: 1921 federal election -- 40 to 50 MPs were elected with the proven support of just a minority of the voters in their districts. 2017 Ontario election (see my other blogs for info on this) In 2021 federal election (see my other blogs for info on this)

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Here's some more: currently all Saskatchewan MPs are Conservative. currently all MPs in PEI are Liberal. under FPTP, from 1935 to 2008, only one CCF/NDP MP was elected in Alberta from 1935 to 2008. Under FPTP, in the 2006 election, the federal Conservative Party of Canada won all the seats in Alberta, achieving a complete sweep of the province's federal seats. Alberta provincial under FPTP, no CCF/NDP MLAs were elected in Edmonton for 23 years, 1959 to 1982. (Under STV, a Farmer or a Labour MLA or both was elected in Edmonton in almost all elections from 1926 to 1955.)

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Here's some provided by Fair Vote Canada

https://www.facebook.com/FairVoteCanada/photos/10159035384311247 https://www.facebook.com/FairVoteCanada/photos/10159028362626247

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