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Tom Monto
Dec 612 min read

Timeline of Canadian electoral reform -- Part 1 Beginnings to 1899

Updated: 2 days ago

Timeline of Canadian electoral reform and related writings

Part 2 Beginnings to 1899


Documenting Canadian electoral reform,

especially Proportional Representation and Effective Voting (STV),

and Canadian or Canadian-related published works on the subject.


This is Part 1 of a two-part Montopedia blog.

(for Part 2. Beginnings to 1899, see

=======


Here is a brief timeline/outline of Canadian electoral reform, especially proportional representation and effective voting (STV), and of Canadian or Canadian-related published works on the subject.

(It is Part 1 of a two-part Montopedia blog.)


Obviously this blog overlaps with Montopedia's two-blog "Timeline of Electoral Reform and P.R." This blog concentrates solely on reform developments within Canada and the effect of the written word.

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(from the start of recorded history in Canada, single-winner First Past The Post was not the only method used in elections.

In the earliest elections, Block voting was used as well.


1759 Nova Scotia held first (known) election in Canada.

in one contest voter cast as many as 16 votes.

this was oral and open voting - no secrecy!


1867 Confederation Halifax was two-seat district.

(see Montopedia blog "Multi-member districts in Canada")


[Historical note:

FPTP or Block Voting both wasted many votes, and by mid-1800s, there was discussion in many places in the worldof fairer systems.

Hill and Thomas Hare in far-away Britain, and Andrae in Denmark innovated fair systems at this time.

The first applications of fair voting in real government elections was in Tasmania and Denmark.

(see Montopedia blog "timeline of electoral reform")

Reform was even discussed in Canada by 1874 if not before.


1859  "One of the People" [Alfred Waddington, 1800-1872)]. The Necessity of Reform, a tract for the times addressed to the colonists of Vancouver Island. Victoria: Victoria Colonist office, 1859.

concerning extension of franchise

(CIHM (Canadian Institute of Historical Microreproductions) 92781 --

Waddington was also author of Sketch of Proposed line of overland railroad through BNA and similar studies of late 1800s. also author of what was said to be the first book published on Vancouver Island -- The Fraser Mines Vindicated, or the History of Four Months (1858).


1867

(Around the time of Confederation, many authors used the term "proportional representation" when they talked about "representation by population" (rep. by pop.) - that, say, Ontario should have the same ratio of number of residents to elected MPs as Quebec has, and vica versa. Canada did accomplish that fairness and still has that pretty much today -- the lower ratio that PEI and each of the Territories has are nothing compared to the massive unfairness produced by our unfair election method.

In 2021 PEI and the Territories elected at most seven MPs unfairly due to improper rep. by pop., but the Liberal Party elected 35-plus more MPs than it ought to have due to our unfair election system.)


Even with fair Rep by Pop., still most MPs were elected in single-member districts and John A. Macdonald himself admitted to using the gerrymander to keep down Liberal representation. He called it "hiving the Grits." (Humphreys, PR, (1911), p. 31)


From the start, Canad has had more than two parties competing in elections. Thus, even from the start, the FPTP system has shown its shortcomings. Election vote tallies vary but according to some, the very first elections resulted in a false-majority government.

(MPs Edward Blake, Richard Cartwright and others soon began to speak out against FPTP. Within 20 years Toronto amended its election system to produce minority representation, with STV being brought into use in Alberta and Mantioba by the early 1920s.)

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1874 Edward Blake Speech at Aurora

(CIHM 828) (also CIHM 34068)

Hon. Blake supported pro-rep (Parliamentary companion -- CIHM 32961)

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1877 Miall, Edward (1838?-1903) Defects of our system of government : delivered by Mr. Edward Miall before the Literary and Historical Society of Ottawa, on 3rd February, 1877.

(CIHM 10101)

====


Edward Blake (1833-1912)

1881 Young Men's Reform Club (Montréal, Quebec). Young Men's Reform Club : banquet in honor of Hon. E. Blake, M.P., at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, Tuesday, 29th March, 1881.

Published [Montreal? : publisher not identified, 1881?]

(CIHM 08869) (Edward Blake see 1874)

======


1886, 1890 Toronto MLAs elected through Limited Voting.

city-wide district used.

each voter had two votes, three MLAs elected in the district.

one seat went to the minority party.

This was the first break in the rule that each voter would have as many votes as the number of seats to fill.

(Note this was not the first multi-member district used in Canada. Starting in 1867, the riding of Halifax had two members. Other two-seat ridings followed. The Maritime provinces and BC used multi-member districts in provincial elections. see Montopedia blog https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/canada-federally-and-in-the-provinces-and-territories-used-multi-member-districts-part-2 )

The reason for the creation of some of these two-member ridings was to simply increase the seat count (representation) for a city without having to create two single-member districts.

In other cases, they were used to allow a Liberal voter to give one vote to a Catholic Liberal candidate and one to a Protestant Liberal candidate; Conservatives likewise.

(Toronto went on to use Cumulative Voting in municipal elections in 1904.

In 1911 the municipality of Toronto used single voting for the election of committees. [I am not sure exactly what is meant by this.] (Humphreys, PR (1911), p. 135))

====================================



HISTORIC NOTE:

1887 Richard Cartwright put STV forward in the House of Commons but received little support. (Cartwright, Reminiscences, p. 384)

(at that time, the three Toronto MLAs were being elected in a city-wide district through Limited Voting.)

(STV was not being used by voters anywhere in the world at that time.) [perhaps he did not exactly say STV?]

"A free trader, he stood against the Conservatives' high-tariff policy. Often propounding on the inalienable right of Canadian freeman to vote for and in support of their patriotic convictions independent of any party, he favoured proportional representation via Single Transferable Voting. He supported the fight of western farmers for accessible terminal grain elevators in 1910." (from https://dbpedia.org/page/Richard_John_Cartwright)


Richard J. Cartwright, Reminiscences Toronto: William Briggs, 1912. (CIHM 73162)

Cartwright expressed his support for proportional representation in Reminiscences, pages 314 and 384. Not wanting to make promises the system might not fulfill, he called it "proportionate representation."


Richard J. Cartwright, MP 1867-1904, federal cabinet minister 1874-1878, then Senator from 1904 to his death (1912).

He was long-time fan of Pro-Rep. (Edmonton Bulletin, Oct. 26, 1900)

(see 1909)

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1891 Alderman Walker [W. J. (Walter James) Walker, of New Westminster]. Some Thoughts and Suggestions on municipal reform in BC. Published in New Westminster by Lewis and Greig, 1891.

against the ward system of election, against voter casting multiple votes (as happens in Block Voting).

"A municipal government by angels would be perfect in spite of the system. [What] is required is to make the system perfect in spite of - well, such men are are usually elected into municipal councils."

(CIHM 16421) (not mentioned in Pilon, Drive for PR in BC, 1994.)

At time of writing this, Walker was "chairman of the school board of New Westminster and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants."

=====



James Mavor (1854-1925). The political situation and labour problems. Glasgow: J.B. Douglas, [1892?]

called for pro-rep

(CIHM 34061)

(A few years later Mavor was pivotal in having anarchist leader and author Kropotkin come to Canada. see Montopedia blog)

=====


1892 Sanford Fleming. An Appeal to the Canadian Institute on the Rectification of Parliament. Toronto: Copp, Clark, 1892. 

Fleming was perhaps Canada's most illustrious scientist of his time. And even today we use the system of 24 time zones around the world that he invented.

Catherine Helen Spence referred to him as "Canada's leading propotionalist" in her Autobiography.


see my blogs for copies of this, starting with:


He was also author of

Fleming Ocean travel

Fleming Party or parliament. (CIHM 6103)

=======


1893 Sanford Fleming. Essays received in response to an appeal by the Canadian Institute on the  Rectification of Parliament.

(CIHM 01093)

Essays within included those submitted by Catherine Helen Spence (Southern Australia) and Alfred Cridge (San Francisco, formerly of New Brunswick).

The essays were submitted as part of a contest but no winner was ever declared and no prize was ever paid out.

(see Montopedia blogs on Catherine Helen Spence and Alfred Cridge.)

=====


HISTORIC NOTE:

In 1893 Catherine Helen Spence visited the U.S. and Toronto.

She had gone to the Chicago World Fair. While there, she addressed the International Conference on Charities and Correction, the Proportional Representation Convention (which Alfred Cridge also attended), the Single Tax Conference, the Peace Conference and a gathering in the Women's Building.

She then lectured and preached across the United States, visited Canada, Britain and Switzerland, and returned to South Australia in 1894.

Next year she formed the Effective Voting League of South Australia...

 And the rest is history -- but it took about 15 years before Tasmania had adopted STV on a permanent basis and years more before other Australian states did.


In 1893-94 she spend almost a year in the U.S. and Canada.

She visited Toronto at the invitation of Mr. Howland, with whom she had corresponded for years. (He was son of Lord William Howland gov-general or some such in early Canada.) During the visit she converted Robert Tyson to P.R. and discussed P.R. with influencer Goldwin Smith. During her stay in the U.S. she spent time with tax reformer Henry George and Alfred Cridge. (Spence, An Autobiography, p. 74)


C.H. Spence  "Effective Voting" Sept. 1893   P.R. Review 

C.H. Spence "Transferable Vote" June 1894  P.R. Review

(Hathi trust has issues of P.R. Review from 1894 to 1903

(see 1900)

==========


1893

A.H. Brintnell. A Solution for the Purifying of our Political Affairs. 1893  

called for appointed representatives.

(This is example where a free-thinker saw the problems with the Canadian election system and did not propose fixing it but proposed to do away with elections altogether.)


He was also author of the 1897 book The coming victory, the common fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man; the great capital and labor questions solved by the nationalization and co-operation of all industries; an inquiry into political and social economy.

(online: CIHM 10268).

A manufacturer, he held a patent for an "Annunciator," a type of fail-safe fire alarm.(https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/57/5c/40/735eadb8b99512/US470831.pdf)

==========



1893 Buffalo Conference on Electoral Reform

Robert Tyson attended this conference held at Buffalo, New York.


see Montopedia blog

=========


Multiple-member districts are prerequisite for P.R. This realization is pivotal for future progress toward elecroa reform.

Ward    large districts necessary to give choice to voters  P.R. Review Dec 1894

(Ward is not Canadian as far as I know)

======


Alfred Cridge "Hare preferential plan"  March 1895  P.R. Review 

(mentioned in The Preferential Vote (Oklahoma Univ.) p. 46 circa)

====================


1895 Alfred Cridge  

Proportional representation including its relation to the Initiative and the Referendum.

includes a piece on "The present situation of the movement - the national organization - will Oregon lead?" (p. 24)


(reprinted in a very different version in 1904)


Alfred Cridge was resident of San Fran in 1893 but formerly resident of St. John, New Brunswick. He participated in the 1893 Chicago PR Convention, which was attended by Catherine Helen Spence and others.

That convention laid the base for the formation of the Proportional Representation League [U.S./Canada].

The following year, after her return to Australia, Spence formed the Effective Voting League of South Australia.

(see 1893)

=========


1897 Equity Series carried "Proportional Representation Department" edited by Robert Tyson of Toronto.

Equity Series began publication in Philadelphia around 1897 (I think). (publisher C.F. Taylor).

Later it took name Equity, and much later National Municipal Review.

Equity Series: "Devoted to improved processes of self-government, including the Initiative and Referendum, the Recall, Proportional Representation ... and whatever methods tend to increase the efficiency and democratic control of municipal, state, national and international government."

Hathi trust online has many issues of the Equity Series, and the books that its offices published - such as C.F. Tayor, The Land Question; Newton M. Taylor, Elements of Taxation; and books by Frank Parsons -- The City for the People and Rational Money.

(see #30 - Equity v.8:1-4 JA-O(1906). - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

 p. 28)


===

Hathi trust online:

#201 - Equity v.1:1. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

Rational Money by Frank Parsons


City for the People by Frank Parsons

#11 - Equity v.1:3(1901). - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


The organization and control of individual corporations by Frank Horack

#11 - Equity v.5:4. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


Story of New Zealand  by Frank Parson #9 - Equity v.6. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library


Railways, Trust and the People by Frank Parsons #7 - Equity v.7:3-4. - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library

========


1897 Municipal Affairs a quarterly magazine...

has articles by (or mention of) Woodruff and Waring.

[Canadian content?]

=====


1897 - Toronto Trades and Labor Council constitution (dated 1897) called for use of the "Hare-Spence system of ballot" (STV) in its elections. (Hathi trust onine)

By 1897, Robert Tyson had been helping the Toronto TLC conduct its elections using STV for a few years. (1914 Equity magazine, (online v. 15-16, 451/462)) (see 1914)



1898 Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario, 

Effective Voting - the Basis of Good Municipal Government.

Toronto. [1898] 31 pages

(reprinted from Citizen and Country 1898)

A part of the booklet (p. 30-31) was devoted to a proposed bill formulated by John Idington, QC, of Stratford (Ontario) that, if passed and made into law, would allow any municipality in Ontario that used at-large districting to use STV.

In 1898 Idington was chairman of the Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario.   Idington (1840–1928) was a Stratford lawyer and a judge in the Supreme Court of Canada, 1905-1927. (Wikipedia has an article on his life)

[haven't found anything else he wrote in favour of P.R. but still searching...]


G. Weston Wrigley was secretary of the PRCO in 1898.

[the years of operation of the PRCO is unknown right now.]


At the time of writing, STV was used to elect ten legislators in two cities in Tasmania, and list P.R. was used in ten Swiss cantons.

At the time there was no known use of P.R. (or STV) in any municipality, but the booklet said that English school boards were elected by Cumulative Voting, and that executive members of the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute were elected by what was called the Hare-Spence system, "with entire success and complete satisfaction."

San Francisco Mechanics' Institute -- Seven members were elected in a contest involving 800 to 1000 voters. in 1896, 958 votes were cast, and the counting under STV took just two hours and fifteen minutes. (page 15)

As well, the Toronto Trades and Labour Council used STV to elect its executive. (Chapter 5. "An object lesson" (p. 28-30) outlined how the 1898 TLC STV election worked.

At the end, the author asked "Is not this Proportional Representation, Effective Voting and Scientific Suffrage?"


Although the author regarded Hare-Spence as "the best all-around plan of Effective Voting," the booklet also outlined the Gove system (p. 24-25), Cumulative Voting and Limited Voting.

It said Cumulative Voting had been used for twenty years to elect English school boards but stated that Alfred Cridge believed that the use of such an imperfect system had actually held up the progress toward P.R.

It said Cumulative Voting was also being used in Illinois but in districts of only three seats. "Such a burlesque on pro-rep only retards progress."

Limited Voting had been used to elect 3 Toronto MLAs with each voter casting two votes.

In New York, Limited Voting had been used where voters cast seven votes to elect 12 members.

But both systems had been dropped by 1898.

(The Gove system has never been used anywhere.)


Effective Voting (p. 27-29) outlined how STV had been used successfully to determine the location for a company picnic of the Wm. and J.G. Greey business, of Toronto, where 80 workmen worked. (Despite vote transfers, a tie had resulted so a runoff election was held with just two options.)


(this is the only book by PRCO that is available on hathi trust)


======


1899 First Political and Social Conference, Buffalo. 

Conference mostly on Direct Legislation but STV used in elections.


Many Canadian reformers attended the six-day event:

Bryan, George J.   Toronto, Ontario

Crawford, Rev. E.E.   St. Thomas, Ontario

Macoun, James   Ottawa (apparently a different person from author John Macoun, 1831-1920, of the Geological Survey of Canada, who not write on electoral reform)

McLean, D.J. and wife     Bridgebury, Ontario

McLean, William    Bridgebury, Ontario

Marsh, G. Fred     Thornbury, Ontario

Rowe, Rev. Elliot C.  Toronto, Ontario

Sinclair, Calvin  Bridgeport, Ontario

Tarr, S.R.     Woodstock, Ontario

Robert Tyson  Toronto, Ontario

Watson, Dr. Albert D.   Toronto, Ontario

Wrigley, George  Toronto, Ontario

Wrigley, G. Weston, Toronto, Ontario. (son of George)


STV was used to elect the nine-member Committee on Resolutions.

===============


1898-1902 Samuel Russell, of Desoronto, Ontario MPP of East Hastings, three times introduced legislation for local option on P.R., to allow municipalities to decide for themselves if they would use STV. (The Direct Legislation Record and the Proportional Representation Review, March 1902 (135/216), also 1902 23/180)

(see 1915)


=========================

For similar information on the course of the Canadian P.R. movement in the 1900s and early 2000s, see Montopedia blogs Part 2 and 3.


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