NDP suffered under FPTP in the 2019 federal election
Overall the NDP with its 16 percent of the vote should have won 55 seats but won only 24.
It was due six seats in AB/Sask and got just one.
It deserved 49 seats outside AB Sask seats but won only 23.
In Saskatchewan, 111,000 votes were cast for the NDP, electing no one.
In Nova Scotia, 100,000 votes were cast for the NDP, electing no one.
In PEI, 6000 votes were cast for the NDP electing no one.
In New Brunswick, 41,000 votes were cast for the NDP, electing no one.
These results show up badly when you consider that a Liberal and a Conservative MP were elected with less than 11,000 votes each (in Cardigan, PEI and in the Saskatchewan riding of Desnethe--Missinippi--Churchill River).
And in four other provinces the NDP was under-represented as well.
In Alberta the NDP with a micro-regional base of Strathcona took that district with almost a majority of the district vote, while the other Alberta NDP-ers - ten percent of the AB votes - went without a seat although due 3. NDP voters in Alberta proportionally deserve to be represented by four MPs. The undemocratic FPTP voting system has thrown most of their votes in the trash.
In Ontario the NDP should have received 17 seats but got only 4.
In Quebec it got 17 percent of the vote so was due 8 seats but got only 1.
In Newfoundland it should have got 2 seats but got only 1.
In BC and Manitoba the NDP received about its proportional share of seats.
Conservatives complain about the unfairness that it took 59,000 Conservatives to win a seat outside Alberta /Sask, while in AB/Sask it took only 38,000. These numbers are nothing compared to how many it took to win a NDP seat in Alberta - 235,000.
It took 235,000 votes to win a NDP seat in Alberta.
Until the NDP gets a vote share of 35 or more percent, it is unlikely that it will benefit from the over-representation that large parties receive under FPTP. Meanwhile while we are waiting for the big breakthrough, without pro-rep we are denying ourselves the chance for sure and steady progress.
In the 1944 Alberta election the CCF received almost a quarter of the vote but only two seats. This may have been a pivotal occurrence in Alberta history. If there had been 16 CCF MLAs in the Legislature when Alberta struck oil in a big way in 1947, the history of the province may have been much different. Its oil resources may have been used in a careful conservative way that would have avoided the booms and busts that have plagued Alberta ever since, hundreds of thousands of working families would have benefitted from the progressive legislation that a caucus of that sort could have squeezed from the Social Credit and Conservatives governments, if not even having a chance at power itself through the publicity that proportional size would have given it.
Apart from these partisan issues, the NDP should fight for pro-rep because it is fair. Each party with substantial popularity can expect its proper share of representation.
It is fair and it is democratic.
Thanks for reading.
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overall stats
Due to its regional relatively strong base of support in western Canada and the First past the post election system in use, the NDP has been under-represented compared to its vote percentage in each parliament except that of 2011-2015.
Provincially no CCF or NDP MLA was elected in Edmonton from 1955 to 1982, despite CCF or NDP taking at least ten percent of the vote and being eligible for at least one MLA each election.
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