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Tom Monto

First Past The Post cheats voters in every province

Updated: Mar 18, 2023

Canada’s House of Commons, elected through First Past The Post in 2019, makes the country look far more divided than it really is.

In our four western provinces, the Conservatives won about 53% of the votes, yet Conservative voters elected about 68% of the MPs. Western Liberals won about 21 percent of the western votes, yet Liberal voters elected only 14 percent of the West's MPs.

In Alberta, Liberal voters deserve to be represented by five MPs, yet our undemocratic voting system threw their votes in the trash. In Saskatchewan, Liberal Ralph Goodale was defeated although Saskatchewan Liberal voters deserved to elect two MPs.

In Quebec, Bloc Quebecois voters have cast about 33 percent of the votes, yet our skewed voting system has let them elect about 41 percent of the MPs. Quebec Liberal voters cast about 34 percent of the votes, but they have elected about 45 percent of the MPs.

Yet in fact Quebec has more diverse voices. Conservative voters cast about 16 percent of the votes, but have elected only 13 percent of the MPs. NDP voters cast about 11 percent of the votes, yet have elected only one MP. Green voters cast about 4 percent of the votes, but elected no one.

“I do not see why we should maintain a voting system that makes our major parties appear less national and our regions more politically opposed than they really are” wrote former Liberal leader Stephane Dion in 2012. “I no longer want a voting system that gives the impression that certain parties have given up on Quebec, or on the West. On the contrary, the whole spectrum of parties, from Greens to Conservatives, must embrace all the regions of Canada. In each region, they must be able to obtain seats proportionate to their actual support. This is the main reason why I recommend replacing our voting system.”

“Mr. Dion was obviously right“ says Fair Vote Canada President Real Lavergne. “Distortions of the popular will of the sort that come about under our first-past-the-post voting system are unacceptable in a democracy worth its salt.”

Across Canada, the results under proportional representation would have been about 116 Liberals, 117 Conservatives, 57 NDP, 22 Greens, and 26 Bloc, rather than 157, 121, 24, 3, and 32, respectively.

The Liberals have no mandate to govern alone, with only 33% of the votes. And do not control a majority of seats in the HofC now.

A Liberal-NDP coalition would have a majority of MPs under either system - as now under FPTP or under a proportional system. But under pro rep it would be representative of all provinces while now Alberta and Saskatchewan have no Liberal MPs. Not only would the PMO have to get agreement from two parties, the ruling coalition would contain at least some representation from each of the 10 provinces.

The voting system has robbed more than half of the NDP voters of fair representation. They cast 16% of the votes, yet elected only 7% of the MPs. Only one NDP MP was elected in Alberta while the party's 12 percent of the provincial vote meant it was due four MPs. No NDP MPs were elected in Saskatchewan while the party's 10 percent of that province's vote meant it was due two to three MPs.

Still worse, Green Party voters cast 6% of the votes but elected only three MPs, when fair representation would have been 22 MPs.

Atlantic Provinces voters are more diverse than they appear from the results. Atlantic Canada Conservative voters deserved to elect nine MPs rather than only four. The 32 MPs from those four provinces should have included five New Democrats rather than only one, and four Green MPs rather than one.

Ontario voters deserved to elect 24 New Democrats not just 13, and 11 Green MPs rather than none.

The current voting system consistently skews results in favour of larger parties, and exacerbates differences between the various regions of Canada. Canadians deserve better.


(copied from Fair Vote Canada website and blogged here in edited form. Any mistakes are my fault. TM)


Thanks for reading.

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