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Timeline of Canadian Electoral Reform -- Part 2 1900-1916 Proportional Representation, STV and more

  • Tom Monto
  • Feb 24, 2025
  • 30 min read

Updated: Jun 4

History of Canadian electoral reform and Canadian or Canadian-related published works on the subject.


This is Part 2 of a five-part Montopedia series.

(for Part 1. Beginnings to 1899, see

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HISTORIC NOTES:

Block Voting widely used

In 1900, of Canada's seven provinces, five were using only MMDs, or a mixture of MMDs and single-member districts.

Members elected in MMDs were elected using Block Voting.

(Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland were not provinces in Canada in 1900.)

The Yukon territory elected two members at-large using Block Voting in 1900.

(see 1868 and footnotes below)

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PR starting to be more widely used in the world

(In 1900, Belgium and Switzerland were using PR.

Tasmania in Australia had been using it (and would resume its use in 1907).

Within 25 years, 10-15 more countries would be using PR of one sort or another.

This includes several British Commonwealth countries -- Ireland, Malta, Australia and South Africa.

Two provinces would also be using STV to elect MLAs.

And more than 15 municipalities in Canada would be using STV to elect city councillors.)

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1900 The Women’s Canadian Historical Society opened a campaign for proportional representation with a lecture on "Effective Voting: Its History as Developed by an Australian Woman", referring to Catherine Helen Spence who had visited Toronto in 1893.

(from Barbara Caine,  Unbridling the Tongues of Women: A Biography of Catherine Helen Spence (1887))

(several Montopedia blogs discuss Catherine Helen Spence)

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1900 Eltwood Pomeroy. By the People. Arguments and Authorities for Direct Legislation or the Initiative and the Referendum

(major article in Direct Legislation Record, November 1900)

Consists of articles and symposiums previously published in the New time, in 1897 and 1898.

Introduction by J.W. Sullivan, in which he sets out reasons why "representatives don't represent."

includes an article on P.R. by Robert Tyson: "Needed Political Reforms, its principles and progress, with descriptions of the Swiss Free List, Hare-Spence Plan and Gove plan."

He discussed the similarities between the movements for Direct Legislation and P.R.; the different types of P.R. -- the Hare plan (STV), the Gove method, the Swiss Free List; Belgium's first use of PR in a national election in the world; and more.

(Robert Tyson - see 1901)

====

Direct Legislation Record, November 1900:


(Robert Tyson see Montopedia blogs, including



HISTORIC NOTE:

There was considerable overlap between the Direct Legislation people and proportionalist movement.

Prominent proportionalist Robert Tyson wrote an artice for the Direct Legislation Record on the 1898 Canadian referendum on Prohibition.

Issues of the DL Record circa 1900 records the involvement of several significant Canadian reformers -

George Wrigley (who is said to be father of George Weston Wrigley (see DCB)),

James H. Macoun (of the Geological Survey of Canada?),

[Macoun, James   Ottawa is apparently a different person from naturalist/author John Macoun, 1831-1920, of the Geological Survey of Canada, who did not write on electoral reform]

E.N. Price of St. Thomas (Ont.),

 J.M. Johnson, editor of the London (Ont.) newspaper Searchlight.

(#331 (p. 71))

=====


Alfred Cridge. Hope and Home. San Francisco, 1900. favors "Hare system of preferential voting." (mentioned in The Preferential Vote (Oklahoma Univ.) p. 46 circa)

Alfred Cridge had lived in New Brunswick in the 1800s.

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1898-1902 Samuel Russell, of Desoronto, Ontario, Liberal MPP of East Hastings (AKA Hastings East), three times introduced legislation in the Ontario Legislative Assembly 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)

(also mentioned in Tyson's 1901 pamphlet Proportional Voting in Municipal Elections.)

Local option for Ontario municipalities not achieved until 2018. (see 1915)

The local option on PR was achieved in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba around 1917.)

====


1901 Socialist Party of Canada called for PR.

Socialist Party of British Columbia. Socialist Party of British Columbia: statement of principles adopted at Vancouver, October 3rd, 1901.

Published in Ferguson, BC by Lardeau Eagle Printing. [1901?]

Called for "proportional representation". And also the abolition of the Senate, establishment of the initiative and referendum, and recall of representatives by their constituents.

R.P Pettipiece was editor/owner of the Lardeau Eagle from about 1900 to 1902. He went on to be editor of the SPC's Canadian Socialist and the BC Federation of Labour's British Columbia Federationist. He was prominent BC labour official and SPC federal candidate. He was elected Vancouver alderman when STV was used in two Vancouver elections in 1922 (and again later under Block voting - 1933-1935 and in 1936 as a CCF candidate). He ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1923 but failed in part due to vote splitting of left voters. (IRV was not used in that election).

In 1930s he spoke out against the use of wards, and today Vancouver aldermen are elected in at-large elections (but with Block Voting so no PR).

He also co-wrote the book The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery Showing how Chattel Slaves of Pagan times have been transformed into the Capitalist Property of Today (1916)

(see Wikipedia: "Richard Parmater Pettipiece")

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


HISTORIC NOTE:

1901  Proportional Representation Review resumed publication after a pause of several years. It was a section of the Direct Legislation Review, which helped cover costs.

Robert Tyson, of Toronto, became editor of the Proportional Representation Review, published by the Proportional Representation League (U.S./Canada).

He held this post until 1913. He died the following year.

(see P.R. Review, Oct. 1914, p. 37)

(see Montopedia blog Proportional Representation Review)

(Robert Tyson's name is mentioned in this timeline in about every year until 1914.)

Inaugural edition online:



1901 "R.T." [Robert Tyson]. Proportional Voting in municipal elections.

Toronto: Proportional Representation Society of Ontario [1901] (5 pages)


(Robert Tyson - see 1900) [keyword PRSO)

(Despite Tyson's best literary and lobbying efforts, P.R. was never used in a government election east of Manitoba.)

========


1901 Second Political and Social Conference, Detroit. on Direct Legislation but STV used in elections and given prominence.

====


1902 G.W. Ross (premier of Ontario) booklet published --  Is the Referendum constitutional?. Transcript of speech given in Ontario Legislature. (listed in P.R. Record 1902ish)

[mentions PR?]

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1902 Canadian Referendum League

Headed by J.F. Thompson, History Master, Simcoe High School

League formed due to success of D.L. Convention, Toronto, Nov. 1898.

Three main goals:

-- Direct Legislation and Proportional representation

-- Nationalization of all public franchises

-- Nationalization of all mines.

(Direct Legislation Record and the Proportional Representation Review  Dec. 1902)

(No referendum in Canada has ever resulted in electoral change. Even where referendum result was in favour of change, government has over-ridden the result.)

=======



1902 George Shibley. Majority Rule in combination with representative government in city, state and nation can be obtained in a non-partisan way and with little effort...

existing system allows rule by the few. (24/128)

message of book "in a nutshell" p. 28

[Majority rule in combination with representative government is pretty much pro-rep.]


"Evils that result from rule of the few" p. 71


quotes Canadian scholar Goldwin Smith on why party government results in rule by the few (31/128)

(But Smith never went on to endorse PR, as Tyson mentions in his writing in 1904.)


Shibley was director of the Research Institute of Washington, D.C. and member, U.S. Supreme Court Bar. (Hathitrust 13960)

chair of the National Federation of Majority-Rule (see 1902)

In 1904 he contributed an article to Arena on whether or not the "Majority-rule system constitutional".


Shibley wrote several books on the need for monetary reform. He also wrote Freedom in 1912, an address by the Progressive Federation, to all progressive non-partisan organizations, an early work of the Non-Partisan League movement.

His proposed constitution for the Progressive Federation included the use of P.R. for executive members, saying "this will result in such a representation that the conflicting interests that are ever present will participate in the work of the executive. This will tend to prevent factional strife. It will result in rep. for the minority, who will thus be able to argue their side of each proposition. This will tend toward a just decision by the executive board and tend also to prevent disruption, a weakness that always comes where the minority are not represented...

STV, "the simplest form" of pro-rep, was to be used "where multiple members are elected to similar offices. The instruction to the voters is to cast a vote for one of the candidates and also to indicate a second choice and a third choice, and the votes is afterward counted to one of these." (p. 14)

 (Hathi trust)

===


1902 Toronto Federation for Majority Rule.

People's veto and direct initiative. How to get it at the next general election.

Published in Toronto. 2-page broadside. (Weinrich)

(see also 1903)

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1902

Robert Tyson.

1902 "Needed political reforms (Number one) Direct legislation, or the Initiative and the referendum and the recall." (Arena, Nov., 1902)

1902 "Needed political reforms (Number two) Proportional Representation or effective voting."  (Arena, Dec. 1902, p. 610)  

(listed in Preferential vote (U of Oklahoma) Hathi trust online)

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1902/1903 Robert Tyson gave the pro-rep cause a higher profile in Canada when he moderated the use of STV to elect the executive of the Trades and Labour Congress. (Proportional Representation Review Dec. 1902, p. 78; Dec. 1903)

At this time, the TLC passed a resolution in favour of "Proportional Representation in grouped constituencies [multi-member districts] and abolition of municipal wards."

(for Tyson's STV work with the Toronto Trades and Labour Council, see 1914)


1902-1903 Tyson author of these pamphlets:

P.R. in Belgium

P.R. in Switzerland

A Primer on D.L. and P.R. [D.L. being Direct Legislation].


Voting Methods for Clubs and Societies

 Robert Tyson, Secretary of the American Proportional Representation League, Toronto, Canada.

Winnipeg : The Voice (Winnipeg), [1905?]

Available: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Collection générale / General Collection JF1001 T97



Tyson also wrote Proportional Representation -- its Principles, Practices and Progress 

(date unknown - perhaps this is the Tyson-authored pamphlet advertized in GGG, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, 1912, Feb. 12, 1913)


and this article:

1903 The Belgium system of PR     (Arena Dec. 1903)

(see Montopedia blog "Pantheon of electoral reformers - Robert Tyson..." for more information)

It was this level of activism that led to Tyson being named secretary of the American P.R. League in 1904.)

====


1902 Direct Legislation Record identified the following prominent proportionalists:

John Idington, King's Counsel, Stratford

George Dower, former secretary of the Trades and Labor Congress.

Says the Voice of Winnipeg and The Toiler of Toronto were supportive of P.R. and electoral reform. (Direct Legislation Record 1902 [online 22/180])



1902  Legislative Committee of Toronto City Council recommended that Toronto aldermen and school board trustees be elected at-large using the "Hare-Spence system" (STV). 

The proposal was thrown out by the Council, but Alderman Urquhart was mentioned as a supporter of STV.

Proposal for Toronto school board to appeal to Ontario government for right to to use STV narrowly defeated.

Toronto school board trustee John M. Godfrey was supporter of STV. He was likely related to Senator John Godfrey or to MP John Godfrey (1942-2023). (Direct Legislation Record 1902 [online 23/180])



1903 Toronto Federation for Majority Rule, Report of progress. Published in Toronto.

1-page broadside.

Toronto Federation for Majority Rule was "organized to secure the adoption of the people's veto and the direct initiative in the city government." (Weinrich)

(see also 1902)

======


1903 Yukon dropped its two-seat at-large district (first used in 1900). (1900 was the first time members were elected to the Yukon Territorial Council).

adopted a three-district system: two rural districts, each electing two, and the Whitehorse district, electing one, each using Block Voting and FPTP respectively.

(in 1905, Yukon began to elect its five elected members in single-member districts using FPTP. Only in 2025-ish did Yukon change again, to start to use single-winner IRV)

==========


1904-ish ?

Clifford Sifton, a Brandon MP who served as the Minister of the Interior (1896-1905) under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, endorsed proportional representation at the federal level.

He proposed a PR plan to have two-thirds of the MPs in the House of Commons elected in single-seat constituencies and one-third elected on the basis of party popular support. (whether these party seats were to be allocated in compensatory fashion or as part of a Parallel electoral system is unclear. Even if it was to be Parallel system, it would have been an improvement on a strictly-FPTP system.)

========


1903-1904 Robert Tyson wrote many published essays on P.R.:

-"Belgian system of Proportional representation".  The Arena, Dec. 1903.

-"How P.R. has worked in Belgium" 1904 Jan.-June (vol. 31)

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015030334265&seq=165&q1=tyson (165/712) goes into detail with correspondence with Count Avila (sp?), how system was imperfect to start

(alternative title "How P.R. was worked in Belgium")


-"Electoral wisdom of Japan" [SNTV] The Arena, Sept. 1904. (287/778)

(47 districts average of 8 members each, range is 5 to 15 (Tokyo with 1.5M residents))


-"Single Vote in plural elections." [SNTV] The Arena, Oct. 1904. (423/778)

examines STV (Hare or Hare-Spence system); Gove, list PR, Cumulative voting.

Tyson states six conclusions.

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


Another source of P.R. info circa 1904:

[Arena 1904 says Wetmore's Weekly edited by Claude H. Wetmore

assoc editors: Pomeroy and Tyson)

to succeed the D.L. Record and the P.R. Review, to have D.L and P.R. departments

(735/778)

Hathi trust Wetmore's Weekly :

many more issues available there. about one page devoted to PR news each week


[George Shibley, chairman of People's Sovereignty League of Washington (see 1902), contributed many articles to Wetmore's Weekly]

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


1904 Alfred Cridge  Proportional representation including its relation to the Initiative and the Referendum (different version from the 1893 edition)

Alfred Cridge (1824-1902) and his wife, Annie Denton Cridge, were wide-ranging reformers and activists.

(see Montopedia blogs on Alfred Cridge and his writings, such as:

includes an article on P.R. by Robert Tyson in which he discussed PR and the life story of the late Alfred Cridge, who was something of a mentor to Tyson.

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


1904 Earl Grey (the fourth) became Canada's governor General. served to 1911. He was an avid fan of pro-rep. (Claresholm Review, Feb. 5, 1909; Grain Growers Guide, Sept. 29, 1915; Edmonton Bulletin, April 6, 1912; Humphreys, Proportional Representation (1911)) His past calls for political equality for Irish Catholics were relevant to Canada's internal politics, divided as the population was between Catholics and Protestants, Francophones and Anglophones. Earl Grey's receptive views on minority rights held by Irish Catholics was recorded in a pamphlet PPA in Ontario (1894) (available on-line CIHM 25285).

Shortly after his installment as Governor General, his office sent out inquiries to provincial legislatures as to what legislative measures had been taken on the principle of PR. (correspondence between the Under-Secretary of State, Ottawa and the Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, January 7-15, 1907 (Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, R192-4- 127).

Likely his influence encouraged the City of Ottawa to hold a referendum on adopting STV in 1915, shortly after the end of his term as GG. Majority of voters voted in favour, but Ontario government refused to allow that change.

(see 1917)

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1904 Cumulative Voting adopted for elections to city boards in Toronto.

The Proportional Representation Review (September 1903) described it like this:

"Cumulative voting as applied to the Board of Control, means that each elector will have four votes but that he need not give each of them to a different candidate. He may do so if he wishes; but he has also the power to give all his four votes to one candidate. This makes "plumping" four times as powerful as it was by the old "block" vote system, when if you "plumped" for one candidate, you threw away three out of your four votes. Now you have the benefit of your full voting power, whether you plump or not. And plumping is the correct thing; in fact proportional representation is simply effective representation with the addition in the best systems of a provision for transfer of votes, so as to prevent wasting too many on one candidate...

Besides permitting an elector to give all four votes to one candidate, the cumulative plan enables him to give two of his votes to one candidate and two to another, or he may give three votes to one candidate and his fourth to another candidate. In fact he may distribute or cumulate his four votes as he pleases....

If one-fourth of the voters give all their votes to one candidate, they can elect him, no matter what the other three-fourths choose to do[...] thus Cumulative Voting if used carefully allows for minority representation." (P.R. Review, Sept 1903)

[But STV secures minority rep for even smaller miniority - in a four-seat district, STV guarantees a seat to any candidate with one-fifth of the vote.]

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1905 More writings on P.R. by Robert Tyson

Arena 1905 "P.R. in Switzerland" The Arena (378/798; 384/746, 494/746) ("Free List system with the Multiple Vote") (see 1905 below)

(Arena July to Dec. 1905


Robert Tyson "P.R. in Switzerland" "Free List system with the Multiple Vote"

Tyson's article said Switzerland used largest remainder method to allocate seats, but there was move to go to using fairer but more complicated D'Hondt quota system (Tyson refers to Lt-Col. Jules Curie, an officer in the French Army engineers)

As well, Tyson notes Canton Zug uses Cumulative Voting.

(although Switzerland used multiple vote, as Tyson mentioned, Tyson's example says 21,000 voters cast 21,000 votes)

(The Arena, vol. 34. 1905) (378/798)

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1905  Liberal Conservative Party (Ontario)

A pure ballot and an honest count ... : Ontario elections, 1905, Mr. J.P. Whitney, LL. D., K.C., M.P.P., for premier ... : the record and platform of the Liberal-Conservative Party : development, progress, reform and popular freedom, build up Ontario morally and materially : polling January 25, 1905.

Published [Toronto? : publisher not identified, 1905?]

online: CIHM 86677

===


1905 McPherson, William David (1863-1929)

The law of elections in Canada. Published in Toronto: Canada Law Book Company, 1905.

online: CIHM 85382

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1905 The debate on creation of provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan may touch on electoral reform as in gerrymandering the provinces to give one or other party an advantage. But the way it was done, both the Conservative block along the CPR and the Liberal-minded block along the Saskatchewan river valley were each split in half, with the Liberal majority in each new province dominating, at least at first.

T.A. Patrick. The Five Province Heresy - a Menace to National Unity (1905) (Weinrich 353) online: https://ia800104.us.archive.org/6/items/cihm_84807/cihm_84807.pdf

[Hathi trust has searchable text but no full viewing]

He also authored Our Senate Problem and its Solution [1924?]; and The County System for Saskatchewan [1921?]

(see wiki "Thomas Alfred Patrick")

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1905 UMWA constitution Fernie [mentions PR?] (CIHM online)



1906 -- Laurier had promised Senate reform in 1893. (and by 1906 had extended himself to the extent of saying Senators should be selected by provincial governments. Sat. News writer in Edmonton said that was step forward but not as much as Laurier had promised in 1893. (Saturday News, May 5, 1906, p. 1)

====



1906 Robert Tyson

-A series of articles in The Arena under title "A primer of direct legislation":

"Proportional representation" and "The Hare or Hare-Spence system" The Arena, July 1906;

"Absolute majority method" [favours IRV] The Arena, July 1906.

(all listed in The Preferential ballot (U of Oklahoma) (Hathi trust online)).


1907 Earl Grey (Governor General) fan of PR. His office sent out inquiries to provincial legislatures as to what legislative measures had been taken on the principle of PR.

The Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan sent back word that "the principle of PR has not been made applicable to any public elections" in that province. Likely only Ontario could respond that such had been experienced with its use of Limited Voting in 1886 and 1890. (correspondence between the Under-Secretary of State, Ottawa and the Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, January 7-15, 1907 (Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, R192-4- 127)).


1908 Robert Tyson. "Various voting methods" Arena, Jan. 1908, p. 60

Tyson defined

-"Full Proportional Representation" (where balance is fine enough that each voting block elects member(s) separately and any voting block with quota elects one member), as compared to

-"Partial Proportional Representation" (where two or more quotas are necessary to elect one member). This is due to low DM or less than perfect method.


Tyson identified these election methods:

Single-winner (FPTP),

Multi-member districts but using Block Voting;

Limited vote (ordinary form) where voter has number of votes equivalent to more than half the seats being filled);

Limited vote (special form) where voter has number of votes equivalent to less than half the seats being filled). (An historically-later example of this occurred In Japan during the US-led Allied occupation. In the first post-war election in 1946 in districts with ten or fewer representatives each voter had two votes; in districts with more than ten representatives each voter had three votes.)

Cumulative Voting

Cleveland System (preponderance of choice)


The Free List with Multiple or Block Voting


Variants of the Free List:

-votes placed on candidates [open-list];

-cumulative voting as to parties prefered,

-limited voting as to parties prefered;

-single voting as used in Belgium. to this might be attached the Proxy Plan where

each elected member carries with him the number of votes he received in the last

election.

(List PR will use one of a variety of quota systems:

-Hare quota

-Droop quota

-D'Hondt system (used in Belgian elections)

These systems may exclude small parties that do not receive enough votes to pass a pre-set threshold.


Single untransferable voting (what we call Single Non-Transferable Voting )


Single Transferable Voting (a number of systems that incorporate direct or indirect transfer of surpus votes and votes from eliminated candidates.)

These systems include:

-Hare or Hare-Spence system

-Gove System


Proxy Plan, where each elected member carries with him the number of votes he received in the last election.


Free List with Single Vote


Absolute Majority method [Alternative Voting or Instant-Runoff Voting]

(the transfers can be done either by the Hare or Gove plan if adapted to a single-winner contest).


Tyson closed with this remark:

"Much progress is being made in electoral reform in widely-separated countries, and the outlook for purified politics is encouraging and hopeful."

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1908 Fuller, Government by the People (1908) (CIHM 65824)

[mentions PR?]


1908-1911 Ontario -- The eight Toronto MPPs were elected in two-seat districts. Each seat was determined through a separate first-past-the-post contest.

(The other 94 MPPs were elected through First-past-the-post voting in single-member districts.)

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HISTORIC NOTE:

1909 House of Commons private member bill for committe to be formed to investigate STV. Passed. But no action was taken. (Western Globe, June 29, 1909)


Senator Richard Cartwright called for grouped districts (multi-member districts). (Western Globe, June 29, 1909)


House of Commons passed a motion made by F.D. Monk, K.C. to appoint a committee of The HofC to investigate methods of PR (Humphreys, P.R. (1911), p. 124)

[I have seen nothing about the Committee's findings.]

Frederick Debartzsch Monk was an Ontario Conservative MP from 1896 to 1914.

(Ronald Hooper referred to F.D. Monk's work of behalf of PR in 1915)

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1909 Freemasons.  Proportionate representation as the basis for grand lodge officers. Toronto : [publisher not identified], 1909

(CIHM 79333) [Perhaps shows that non-government organizations were using STV! Even today major political parties in Canada elect their leaders through a non-FPTP system - IRV (or exhaustive balloting/successive rounds of voting). But meanwhile voters in elections are constrained to cast their vote under the disproportional FPTP system.]

===


1909-1916 -- Course of discussion of PR in Canadian municipalities outlined in Saturday Press and Prairie Farm, Sept. 2, 1916

mentions Monk (1909), Earl Grey addressed Canadian Club at Nelson in 1912?; BC Liberal Party adopted PR (1914); Ottawa adopted STV for election of controllers (1915); Edmonton and Calgary given local option to adopt STV (1916?); Yorath spoke in Swift Current and Montreal on need for PR (1916).

said Saskatchewan Grain Growers should endorse PR even more so than the initiative and recall, which unlike PR, weakens the representation principle.

(announced that it would be discussing PR in the next issue (Sept. 9, 1916? -- not seen)



1910[?] -- Robert Tyson. Proportional representation; its principles, practice and progress.

with Proportional Representation -- The single transferable vote; an explanation, [by] the Proportional Representation Society [PRSC?]

(not seen -- listed on Hathi trust but not available there - perhaps in holdings of University of Michigan, Ann Arbour))

(apparently not in Parliamentary Library)



1910 -- Grain Growers Guide covered electoral reform in the U.S such as Los Angeles where city adopted direct primary, overthrew a transportation monopoly law that had been passed in secret and, and recalled its mayor Arthur C. Harper. ("Democracy in Action", GGG, June 22, 1910, p. 10) (see 1911-1912)



1910 -- Thomas B. Smith (Thomas Barlow), 1839-1933. Light and labor.  [Windsor, N.S.?]: [publisher not identified], 1910.

(Available: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Collection générale / General Collection Mic.F. CC-4 no. 76157)



1911 Charles Beard's Loose leaf digest of short ballot charters, (NY 1911)  contained:

Robert Tyson "Preferential voting" p. 21, 301-21, 304

Robert Tyson "Proportional representation through the single transferable vote" p. 21, 501-21, 502.

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


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



1911-1912  Grain Growers Guide sympathetic voice for PR

J.E. Firth, of Saskatchewan: "What all parties want and need is a method or system by which they will have a free choice in the personnel of their own party and have their votes directly represented in the House, none to be left at home. PR accomplishes this by allowing a voter to vote first, second, third etc. choice of candidates over a large territory. And it also provides for the aggregate number of votes to be equally divided among the successful representatives so that every vote will be represented in Parliament. It also gives a voter a chance to choose a representative to his liking along professional or industrial lines.... Our representatives to Parliament do not really know that they are the choice of their constituents. They were tumbled out by a political machine and machine-voted to power... The party in office represents less than 12 and one-half percent of the people over 21 years of age....

[only .5 vote, only .5 of votes cast elect anyone, .5 of the effective votes elect the party in power].

The 'rule of the people' must soon be the sovereign power in Canadian political economy." (GGG, Nov. 1, 1911, p. 12)


1912 W.J.B. Cannan of Macklin, Saskatchewan contributed an article on STV-PR and the work of the P.R. Society (UK). (GGG, April 17, 1912, p. 12)

Robert Tyson sent a letter to the editor mentioning Cannan's letter and clarifying that the American PR League had been in operation "for some years" and that Wm. Dudley Fouolke was president, and himself secretary. (GGG, May 22, 1912, p. 12)

======


1912   Robert Tyson, long-time activist for the PR cause, wrote a series of articles in Grain Growers Guide on PR. He called for STV but also discussed list PR and SNTV.

The Guide's publication of info. on electoral reform helped push the Canadian Council of Agriculture to endorse that reform. The farmer movement as a whole had interlocking interests in Direct Legislation, electoral reform, Henry George single tax, monetary reform/Social Credit, and more, with the women's wings of the provincial farmers' movements being also active in the drive for Prohibition and female suffrage. (GGG, June 26, 1912, p. 10; July 10, 1912, p. 8; Sept. 18, 1912, p. 7 )

Tyson's second article said "no district should elect fewer than five members and it may elect as many more as you like, providing that you not get too large and clumsy a ballot or bewilder the voter with too many candidates." The Biblical seven may be ideal, occasioning 12 to 16 candidates.

(Robert Tyson - see 1900)


1912 January 24 - R.C. Henders, president of the Manitoba Grain Growers Association, opened his organization's conference with a speech that included:

"The actual power experienced by the people consists chiefly in the periodic choice of another set of masters who make laws to suit themselves and enforce them until their term of office expires, regardless of the will of the people. We are governed by an elective aristocracy, which in its turn is largely controlled by an aristocracy of wealth. Behind the governments and the legislatures are the corporations and trusts. Behind the machines, the rings and the bosses, are the business monopolists, the industrial combinations, and the plutocrats; behind the political monopolists are the industrial monopolists. ...

The principal remedy is Direct Legislation, because it opens the door to every other reform. No one who really believes in self-government can refuse to support the Initiative and Referendum for they merely enable the people to veto laws they do not want and to secure laws they do want, that is, they enable the people to govern themselves. Did we have Direct Legislation what rapid strides would we make along the lines of civil service reform, proportional representation, the elective ballot, equal suffrage, efficient corrupt practices act, and the popular Recall, all of which are really necessary in order that the people may really own and operate the government,... (GGG, Feb. 7, 1912, p. 7)



early 1910s UFA locals were studying the need for a fairer and more democratic system of balloting when political thought had developed to the point where there were more than two divisions of political viewpoint.

One source says numerous resolutions were passed by many locals asking for the transferable vote in single-member districts [IRV]. ("The Transferable Vote", Farm and Ranch Review, March 1, 1956, p. 48)

But actually, it seems, PR and STV was mostly discussed, not single-winner Instant-Runoff Voting, as we see in following entries.


1912 The UFA produced an info sheet on PR (Circular No. 12) "an attempt to explain as briefly as possible the principle involved in PR. The UFA has always been a strong advocate for all progressive measures and PR is one of the most progressive of them all." Mostly discussed the "Hare system or Single Transferable Vote". Mentions that at the next UFA convention a lecturer is to come to speak on PR and that the UFA constitution is set to be amended to have STV used to elect the executive.

circular outlined how under FPTP there are many disenfranchised voters.


The proposed UFA constitution amendments (put forward by the Fertile Plain UFA local) included that

-UFA president to be elected by being the person who receives the majority of votes in any casting of votes for the post (the exhaustive ballot system, potentially involving successive rounds of voting).

-UFA vice-presidents shall be "elected at-large by the system of transferable voting known as the Hare system" (STV) and be ranked among themselves (1st v-p., 2nd v-p. 3rd v-p., 4th v-p.) by their relative standing in "first choice votes" (first preferences).

-"The seven directors shall be elected at-large by the Hare system of transferable voting (STV). (GGG Nov. 19, 1913)

The at-large format of the election was problematic with some locals fearing loss of direct representation.

The UFA circular pointed out that much of the UFA executive in 1913 lived in central Alberta along the C&E railway line, so already there was little or no local rep. for much of the province. Consolation was that, with fair voting and at-large districting, any part of the province that could collect 1/7th of the votes for a local candidate would elect their member to the executive.

And then it understood that there were concerns expressed that if only one-seventh of votes was needed to be elected to the seven-member board of directors, then any crank who could get 1/7th support would be elected. The circular noted that under PR, "the number of cranks on the board will correspond to the number of crank voters at the convention," and further, that "an unknown man who showed sufficient intelligence, education or equipment to get the same support would receive recognition, which under the present system he often does not." (GGG, Nov. 5, 1913, p. 13)

(Thus, many UFA-ers derided rational quota-based guarantee of local representation and also the electoral threshold loosely created by the quota, and preferred to maintain their old system of local district FPTP elections where someone with much less than the PR quota could be elected and where the construction of districts meant no representation for much of the province. The flexible mechanics of STV were hidden and being intuitive were not convincing apparently.)

(However when the next convention was held in Jan. 1914, no PR speaker spoke, and most delegates voted against discussion of the STV proposal. Apparently the at-large aspect was too radical. (GGG, Jan. 28, 1914, p. 7)

(But the UFA's PR project was not blocked for long. In 1916, the UFA devoted part of its "Alberta" page in the GGG to a discussion of PR. And by 1920 (or 1921?) the UFA was electing its executive using STV.)

=====


Some of that same aspiration led others to pursue Direct Legislation, to give voters to control of politicians elected under less-democratic systems.


1913 Direct Legislation

Toward democracy, or, The revival of an old idea: direct legislation the next step in democracy

Published Winnipeg: Grain Growers' Guide, 1913.

(CIHM 9-90583) (not in Peel)


1913 George Robson Coldwell, MLA. The fallacies of direct legislation. 

[Winnipeg? : publisher not identified, 1913?]

Coldwell says Direct Legislation runs against principles of representative government.

G.R. Coldwell was Conservative MLA 1907-1915. Indicted on charges of fraud, he did not seek re-election in 1915. (not to be confused with CCF MP M.J. Coldwell )

(CIHM 77603) (Peel 3876)

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1913 Toronto District Labour Council of Toronto used STV to elect its executive and also three delegates to the central Canadian Labour Congress.

In Aug. 1914 the Labour Council gave Robert Tyson a leather chair as a gift for his work managing the STV elections of the Labour Council's executive and committees over the previous 20 years.

Tyson recalled that these elections mostly used the Hare Quota and the "chance" method for the transfer of surplus votes. The Droop quota was used a couple times but it was found that with the chance method of transferring surplus votes, the Hare quota worked better. (1913 Equity magazine, v. 15-16, online 203/462; 1914 Equity magazine, (online v. 15-16, 451/462)) (see 1897)

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1913 -- Gleichen constituency -- Conservative constituency association set to use multi-round voting (exhaustive balloting) to elect its candidate.

More than 60 delegates present.

in first round, no one got majority of votes.

lowest man eliminated but before next round of voting could be conducted, nominee who had come in second place in first count withdrew. (Strathmore Standard, April 5, 1913, p. 7)

in the election Liberal J.P. McArthur beat out George McElroy.



HISTORIC NOTE:

Lethbridge was first city in Canada/U.S. to adopt a non-plurality system for election of its city administration.

Lethbridge adopted single-winner Alternative Voting (IRV).

P.R. Review, Oct. 1914 noted that AV is "quite a different thing from P.R. but is of interest to many proportionalists."

(Circa 1914, Alternative Voting/Instant-Runoff Voting was sometimes called the Ware method. Ware's system however was the two-round single-winner system known today as the Supplementary Vote.)

=====


Outline of subsequent steps to STV in Alberta elections, 1913-1926


Lethbridge city elections - Lethbridge disbanded its city council. Its board of commissioners was elected in single-winner contests using ranked ballots (Alternative Voting), starting in 1913.

(old publications called it "Hare-Spence" or the "Western Australian method.")


1913 Edmonton elected William McNamara as mayor. He had campaigned in favour of adoption of the elective commission form of city government. (see Montopedia blog "elective commission...")


Calgary city began to use STV in 1917, to elect its city council.


IRV set up for provincial referendum on Prohibition in 1923, to choose best of four options. (One - government sale of liquor and bars - won with majority on the first count.)


Edmonton city began to use STV in 1923


Alberta provincial STV was adopted in 1924 -

               Edmonton and Calgary elected five MLAs each, in city-wide districts

               Medicine Hat  elected two MLAs, in district that covered the city plus much

surrounding countryside.


 First use of STV in provincial general election in 1926.


(Lethbridge, which had started the process, finally brought in STV for its city elections in 1928.)

===========



HISTORIC NOTE:

Around 1914 many North American cities switched, or considered switching, to the Commission Plan or Commission-Manager Plan of civic government. These plans concentrated power in just a few hands (the Board of Commissioners, sometimes with a Manager) sometimes with no city council at all. Under a strict Commission Plan, the new powerful commissioners were elected positions, and to have democratic accountability, PR was often a component of the new system.

(At the same time, many cities were considering adopting Direct Legislation (Initiative, Referendum and Recall) as well.

St. John (N.B.) made the switch to Commission government in 1913.

Lethbridge made the switch in January 1914, dismantling its city council altogether. The Commissioners were elected by IRV. (see GGG, April 15, 1914) (see 1920)

(In the U.S. and with likely some spillover to the Canadian scene, the PR movement received a boost in 1914 when the National Municipal League came out with a modern city government structure that included a call for PR.--https://fairvote.org/archives/a-brief-history-of-proportional-representation-in-the-united-states/)



Edmonton considered the switch to Elective Commission in 1913/1914.

The Clean Government League published Elective Commission -- The Business Plan of Municipal Government in 1913.

In December 1913, mayoral candidate William McNamara campaigned for the Commission Plan and was elected mayor. (GGG, Jan. 21, 1914, p. 9)


Following the election the city swirled with discussion of the commission form of city government.

(see Edmonton Bulletin, Feb. 10, 1914, p. 10; Nov. 28, 1914, p. 1; June 17, 1914, p. 5)


Various ballots designs were considered - STV or IRV using number ranking or columns, Bucklin, weighted Bucklin, a Bucklin-IRV hybrid. The "Edmonton Ballot" was devised to combine IRV for commissioners and IRV for mayor.  (Edmonton Capital, August 24, 1914)


A new city constitution was hammered out, including IRV for election of commissioners, and a confirming referendum scheduled for Dec. 1914.

Then two of the Plan's supporters, Mayor McNamara and Councillor James East, were forced to resign due to conflict-of-interest infractions. Perhaps due to this unhappy connection, the Elective Commission Plan met stony reception in December 1914, when most of the voters voted against it. (see Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 15, 1914)

(one source says voters later deep-sixed the shift to Commission form of government in votes held in 1920, 1921, and 1926. (It is not known if the proposed commission government schemes included PR. I actually have found no report in the Edmonton Bulletin referencing the referendums). But Edmonton voters did vote for change to PR in 1922.)

see Montopedia blog: "1913/1914 Edmonton almost switched to Elective Commission Plan...."

=====


1914 -- Toronto Railway Employees Union, with 2000 members, used STV for its elections in a two-day convention. Polling was done at several polling places in the convention and hours of voting were long to convenience the streetcar-men who worked different shifts. (1914 Equity magazine, p. 204 (online v. 15-16, 451/462))


1914 Ontario -- the four Toronto provincial districts were renamed but each still had two seats.

The seats were elected in separate FPTP elections (the seat/post scheme).

(I don't know if STV was even considered.) (see 1926)

=====


(1915 -- Due to Direct Legislation laws on the books, Alberta held a referendum on Prohibition. A majority voted in favour.

(Some claimed that Switzerland's adoption of D.L. led to adoption of PR -- see Montopedia: "Timeline of Electoral reform". But neither Alberta nor Manitoba held a referendum on PR before adoption of partial PR in the early 1920s.)

=====


[1915] W.W. (Wilbur William) Andrews (1859-1922)

Our national sin : something for nothing.  

Toronto: Issued by the Dept. of Social Service and Evangelism of the Methodist Church [published between 1915 and 1925].

mentions Proportional Representation. (CIHM 98780)

====


1915 - Grain Growers Guide  lent space to pro-PR letters

Party politics seen as enemy, STV the remedy

T.C.B. Boon of Goodlands, Manitoba wrote that the remedy of party politics is not adjustment inside Parliament but "will eventually be found in enlarged constituencies with perhaps half a dozen, or more, members sitting for each - and in each voter possessing the single transferable vote; in other words, the salvation of parliamentary representation lies in what is known as proportional representation." (Grain Growers Guide, Jan. 6, 1915, p. 9)


Letter to editor of Grain Growers Guide (June 23, 1915) called for Cumulative Voting in ten-seat district but Robert Tyson later refuted this, saying CV had "been tried and found unsatisfactory." and that multiple voting in such a district means voter has to vote for many, "some of whom he will not care about." He said "the best method of PR is what is known as single transferable vote." (Grain Growers Guide, July 21, 1915, p. 4)

===


1915 Citizens Electoral Association (Vancouver) Constitution 1915 [president not mentioned] first vice-pres Patrick Donnelly, secretary W.H. McInnes [source of this info not known]



1915 Ronald Hooper addressed the Allied Trades and Labor Association of Ottawa on "PR, A democratic method of electing a truly representative Parliament." full transcript carried in the GGG. (R.H. Hooper referred to F.D. Monk's work of behalf of PR in 1909)

 (GGG, September 29, 1915, p. 7)



HISTORIC NOTE:

1915 Ottawa held a referendum on adopting STV for city elections. Majority of voters voted in favour. But Ontario government refused to allow that change.

====


1916   The Crisis in party politics and the way out. The method and advantages of P.R. and an illustrative election (1916)

Published: Vancouver: Westminster Review Pub. Office, 1916. 15 pgs.

"Reprinted from the "Westminster Review," Vancouver, B.C."

Available: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Collection générale / General Collection Mic.F. CC-4 no. 76838

online: CIHM 76838 in Hathi trust

Not mentioned in Pilon, Drive for PR in BC (1994)

(The Westminster Review was published from November 1915 to December 1917, then it was published as British Columbia Monthly: The Magazine of the Canadian West from January 1918 until its last number was produced in December 1927. (from Wiki: "British Columbia Magazine". Likely published in Vancouver.)

Confusingly, a magazine of the name Westminster Review was also published in Britain, 1824-1914.)


=====


1916 - Grain Growers Guide announced start of Proportional Representation Society of Canada (PRSC). Its honorary president was Earl Grey, in Britain. The Society's first president was James W. Robertson, C.M.G. Vice-presidents -- Senator W. Dennis of Halifax and Red Deer Liberal MP Michael Clark. Hon. secretary for Canada -- Ronald Hooper of Ottawa. [Un-named] hon. secretaries operating in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Nelson and Vancouver. (GGG, Aug. 23, 1916, p. 10)

Local secretaries likely included Garfield King in Vancouver, E.S. Woodward in Victoria (later a Social Credit functionary), Samis in Calgary...

Newton Wolverton, president of the Liberal Party assoc. in Nelson, was a prominent local proportionalist.

====


1916 Proportional Representation. An information pamphlet in support of Proportional Representation within the Canadian House of Commons.

Published by the Proportional Representation Society of Canada (PRSC) "January 1916"

"P.R. leaflet no. 1"

(a copy at Regina Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (inventory number (S)G 289.1), as of Oct. 2025;

a copy at Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / Library and Archives Canada, IEC/CSF (HD-IEC)/ (HD-CSF) Preservation Coll. AC901 A7 1916 no. 0061)



1916

Proportional Representation in Municipal Elections, written by John H. Humphreys in reply to Professor Herman G. James.

Reprinted from the National Municipal Review, Vol. V, No. 3, July 1916.

Published by the Proportional Representation Society of Canada (PRSC)

(a copy in Regina Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (reference code (S)G 289.2) as of October 2025)


===


1916 Grain Growers Guide reprinted an incisive piece on PR from the Westminster Review [BC]. It said it did this because several farmer organization locals had expressed an interest in holding a debate among their members on Proportional Representation that coming winter. (GGG, Oct. 4, 1916, p. 10)

(perhaps this is an excerpt from The Crisis in Party Politics...?)

===


[1916?] Calgary discussing city PR   

P.R. Society of Calgary was invited to propose something. (P.R. Record     online 149/240) [This group likely formed in 1916]

=====


Saskatoon

1916 - C.J. Yorath, Saskatoon City commissioner, called for STV to be used in Saskatoon city elections.

1916 Saskatoon City Commission C.J. Yorath spoke in favour of PR at the 11th Annual Convention of the Union of Saskatchewan Municipalities, held at Swift Current, June 28-30, 1916. His speech published as 16-page pamphlet under title "Civic Government".

(a copy at COS Archives, 1069-1030-005)

2000 copies of P.R. and Civic Government by C.J. (Christopher) Yorath were distributed by Saskatchewan government (Department of Municipal Affairs) to aldermen and officials throughout the province. (mentioned in P.R. Record,  Oct. 1916, online 149/240

[P.R. and Civic Government not in hathi trust, not in bookfinder]

see Montopeda blog for excerpts:

[Yorath was city commissioner of Saskatoon 1913-1921. PR was put into use at the city level in Saskatoon and three Sask. cities, starting in 1920, while he was in Saskatoon. He then served as Edmonton city commissioner, and that was when Edmonton adopted STV itself. He resigned in 1924 when city council rescinded his ban on blacks swimming in city pools. (https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/aug-28-1924-racism-colours-the-opening-of-two-new-city-swimming-pools)]

========


1916-1917 Canadians read of Earl Grey's campaign for proportional representation in the U.K. – by "the removal of the disparity between Parliamentary constituencies with 40 thousand electors, on the one hand, and on the other, other constituencies with less than as many hundreds" (through creation of equal-sized districts).

Earl Grey was also a proponent of PR in the sense of elected representation reflecting how votes are cast. In 1916, he was honorary president of the Proportional Representation Society of Canada and president of the British PR Society. (The Grain Grower Guide, Aug. 23, 1916)

His views on PR published in Equity, July 1917.

(see When Canada Had PR, p. 15 for excerpt) [keyword PRC]


1917 Harold Begbie. Albert Fourth Earl Grey A Last Word.  (CIHM 71702)

PR discussed on page 75-78

see also Earl Grey Education and pro rep fallacies  (CIHM, not seen)


(see 1904, 1907)

=====




unsorted

IODE amendments to the constitution 1920 Calgary 66693 Should Canadian women have the vote? 1913 CIHM 86114


Socialist Party of BC (CIHM 83287)


working hints for local unions of UFWA political situation page 17 mentions Hare PR


history of freedom page 97 pro rep


Not copied:

Report of Alberta Liberal convention Calgary 1919 [many other items on Liberal conventions in 1919]

The Initiative, referendum and recall c. 1912

Social Service Congress 1914

unfinished programme of democracy [1919?]

Calgary ideally situated ... [1919?]

Pros and cons [1914] [debating manual?] includes pro-rep

 John H. Humphreys pro-rep 1911

catalogue of books in TO library (CIHM 86437)

Socialism as it is 1915

Early federation movement of Australia 1910

======


for Part 3 of the timeline of Canadian electoral reform,

see

=======


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


for comments or inquiries concerning this or other blogs, please contact me at montotom@yahoo.ca or find me most days at Alhambra Books, Edmonton.


Alhambra Books is selling copies of my booklet When Canada Had Effective Voting and Proportional Representation.

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History | Tom Monto Montopedia is a blog about the history, present, and future of Edmonton, Alberta. Run by Tom Monto, Edmonton historian. Fruits of my research, not complete enough to be included in a book, and other works.

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