Timeline of Montopedia blogs on Electoral Reform
- Tom Monto
- Sep 28
- 15 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Montopedia blogs on Electoral Reform arranged in chronological order
1759 first election in Canada
first entry in "Timeline of Canadian electoral reform part 1 beginnings to 1899"
1789 French Revolution, seminal event in drive for democracy (freedom and self-rule).
first entry in "Timeline of Electoral Reform part 1 beginnings to 1919"
1792-1861
In every year from 1792 (or earlier) to 1838 and 1841 to 1861, there were always at least some government representatives elected in MM districts serving in the colonial legislative assembly of Upper Canada or Lower Canada or the United provinces (Quebec and Ontario).
entry in "Multi-Member Districts --Canada used multi-member districts federally and in the provinces and territories -- UK and USA also used them (Part 1)"
1820-1945 Jenifer Hart's book PR Critics of the British Electoral System 1820-1945
see also:
1832 United Kingdom electoral reform -- Passage of Reform Bill achieved due to orchestrated run on banks
see Montopedia blogs:
1840 Adelaide, Australia city election -- first use of quota-style PR
City of Adelaide in the colony of South Australia Its first election saw the first use of a form of PR (guaranteed minority (The young Catherine Helen Spence was a witness.)
1859-1883 United Kingdom electoral reform -- "First campaign part 1 1859-1883"
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1861 Australia: Catherine Helen Spence in a pamphlet A Plea for Pure Democracy she put forward a system of STV where votes would be
1867/ 1873
The British North America Act (1867) stipulates that the County of Halifax, a federal riding, would have two members. All other ridings would have just one...
PEI used only MMDs from 1873 (when it entered Confederation) until 1995.
entries in "Multi-Member Districts --Canada used multi-member districts federally and in the provinces and territories -- UK and USA also used them (Part 1)"
U.S. Civil War could have been prevented through PR? see 1869
Sir John Lubbock in his 1884 pamphlet Proportional Representation indicates that a U.S. government report of 1869 says fair voting could have ...
Ashworth and Ashworth (1900) also discussed how PR might have averted Civil War
1870-1980
Illinois's Cumulative Voting 1870 to 1980 Cumulative Voting is not PR and it is not STV BUT it does produce some semblance of minority representation that is not produced under
Illinois's use of 90-year-long CV was interrupted by 1964 election which was conducted using state-wide block voting.
1871
1871 W.R. Ware conducted early demonstration STV election, invented IRV, wrote Machinery of Politics 1871 W.R. Ware used STV to elect Harvard University overseers. than again in May 1872 he used STV to elect 12 overseers of the Harvard...
Charles Buckalew 1872 book Proportional representation; or, The representation of successive majorities in federal, state, municipal,..
Those who think minority governments are created by the multiplication of parties usually blamed on proportional representation will be...
1874
Here is an excerpt from Ed Blake's "Aurora Speech" of 1874, where he talks of need for electoral reform. Edward Blake (1833-1912) was a Canadian politician...
(book on the butter-versus-margarine fight (Propensity to Protect) refers to Blake as being famous for his speeches.)
1881
Henry Richmond Droop On Methods of Electing Representatives 1881 ( https://www.jstor.org/stable/2339223?origin=crossref ) why we vot
1884-1885 United Kingdom electoral reform -- First campaign part 2 1884-1885
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1884 writer: representation if it is fair, must be proportional, and if it deviates from proportionality it ceases to be representational
Proportional Representation A Practical Proposal (1884) A form of list PR was suggested by British reformer John Westlake, Q.C. He
1884-1885 United Kingdom electoral reform --
School boards, local government, Irish Home Rule 1885-1904
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1892-present "Timeline of Edmonton city elections and electoral reform, regressive in recent years."
(see 1920s-1970s (party labels), 1923-1927 (STV))
1893
Sandford Fleming Rectification of the Parliament
Fleming's 1893 book is reproduced in Montopedia in five parts:
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1893 American Academy of Political and Social Scien
Catherine Helen Spence (1825-1910) was a leader in the electoral reform movement of Australia. Below is transcript of talk she gave in
1894
Report of meeting on "Proportional representation," or effective voting, held at River House, Chelsea, on Tuesday, July 10th 1894
1896
STV election process in early Australian/Tasmanian elections, starting at 1896. Transfers, etc. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN TASMANIA BY E.L. PIESSE, B.SC, LL.B. 1913. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33326755.pdf.
1897
1897 Tasmania used STV for election of members of state chamber for cities of Hobart and Launceston. First use of STV (with both..
from OBSERVATIONS ON THE WORKING RESULTS OF THE HARE SYSTEM OF ELECTION IN TASMANIA. BY R. M. Johnston, F.L.S. [circa 1897] The chief...
1898
Effective Voting - the Basis of Good Municipal Government . Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario Toronto. [1898] 31 pages
Effective Voting. THE Basis of Good Municipal Government. AN EXPOSITION OF THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION wa
1899
1899 First Political and Social Conference, Buffalo (New York). June 27th to July 4th (also sometimes called the National Political an
1900
Australia adopted adoption of STV in 1901 when a new Commonwealth-level Electoral Bill was up for debate. Apparently Nansen, Catherine
1900 Ashworth and Ashworth's PR Book
1900-1919 "Timeline of Canadian Electoral Reform -- Part 2 1900-1919 (Proportional Representation, STV and more)"
1901
In early 1901, Eltweed Pomeroy reported on the 1899 Buffalo Conference and laid out plans for the 1901 Conference to be held at Detroit.
1902 "Now this is how to hold a STV rally... South Australia, 1902"
1905-2023 "Timeline of Alberta elections from a proportional representation perspective"
(see 1921, 1924, 1956)
1905-1926 Edmonton used variety of districting and election systems in first six Alberta provincial elections
(see also 1917-1926)
1905-1914 United Kingdom electoral reform -- Second campaign 1905-1914
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
Frederick Desbartzch Monk, MP - Jacques Cartier (a riding in Montreal), moved: That a Select Committee of this House be appointed to
1913/1914
Around 1914 many North American cities switched, or considered switching, to the Commission Plan or Commission-Manager Plan of civic..
1914
The Edmonton Capital newspaper of Aug. 24, 1914 discussed what system of voting Edmonton would use if the City brought in the
1915 Ottawa city elections - Today's FPTP is a far cry from the STV once demanded by the public in 1915
It has an elected city council across 24 wards and a mayor elected city-wide, each elected using the first-past-the-post voting election
1916-1918 United Kingdom electoral reform
-- Speakers Conference and the Representation of the People, 1916-1918
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1917
1917 - Calgary first city in Canada to adopt STV. Calgary also last Canadian city to use STV in 1971
1917 Calgary was first city in Canada to adopt STV. STV in use until 1960, sporadically through 1960s, and then in general election
1917, 1921,1926, 1959 Edmonton provincial elections -- Democratic benefits clear when the election system is changed -- electoral reform in Edmonton shows effect
These stats are taken from Joseph P. Harris "Practical Workings of proportional representation in the U.S. and Canada" National Municipal...
See The Drive for PR in BC, 1917-1923 by Dennis Pilon, B.A. (History and Sociology) thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1996 see also...
1916/1917 "Timeline of provincial elections where women could vote"
1917 first women elected to Alberta Legislature
1919 1919 Grain Growers Guide published Charles Bowman's views on PR and the first Sligo city election conducted using STV GGG (Dec. 10, 1919) published an article by Charles A. Bowman, the editor of the Ottawa Citizen , on the recent Sligo election, the
Much info on the 1919 Sligo election in this publication of the Proportional Representation Society of Canada. The first municipal P.R..
1919-1923 Ontario Farmers government tried for PR, 1919-1923
1919-1929 United Kingdom electoral reform -- Success and failure, 1919-1929
PR Election of city council of Stigo
STV in Ireland and Northern Ireland
End of STV in Northern Ireland
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1920 "Hooper -- Winnipeg's STV survived its first severe test, 1920"
1920s "J.S. Woodsworth called for change to Proportional Representation in 1920s"
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1920-1953 Manitoba's use of STV
"What is representation? One woman MLA not enough - but in 1920 it was sign of women's growing power"
"A Different Way of Voting -- Manitoba's STV 1920-1953"
"Manitoba's STV/AV system 1920-1952 - not a failure as reported"
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1920s to 1970s Edmonton used party labels in city elections
Edmonton city elections used to have party labels. Labels would have made for fairer elections if fair voting had been used.
1920-1971 "Timeline of Electoral Reform part 2 1920-1971 Proportional Representation, STV, List PR, PR books"
1920-1934 "Timeline of Canadian Electoral Reform Part 3 1920-1934 (PR, STV and more)"
1921 "The dis-proportional 1921 Edmonton city election drove Edmonton to adopt pro-rep"
1921 "Vancouver's STV elections, 1921-1922 - fair and balanced"
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/vancouver-s-stv-elections-1921-1922-fair-and-balanced
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John D. Hunt investigates PR, his findings used in 1921 election campaign
1921 Hunt's report seen as attack on public officials when he targeted the electoral system
for info on John D. Hunt, see
Pantheon of electoral reformers - John D. Hunt, clerk of the Alberta Legislative Council and advocate for STV in Alberta elections and in Edmonton
1921 "Present Electoral System Condemned" publication made case for STV in Alberta [John D. Hunt]
1921 Proportional Representation is leading plank of UFA platform (1921)
July 18, 1921 - UFA elected on promise of PR
1921
"When Farmers Changed Voting" 1921 Alberta
An article on Alberta's historic electoral reform published in most recent Alberta Views is surprising to me. ("When Farmers Changed Voting". June 2021)
1921 UFA election in 1921 opened the door to electoral reform
1921 UFA victory - how the Farmers had majority support without a majority of the votes
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1921 Saskatoon used STV for city elections 1921-1926, 1939-1942 - City of Saskatoon Archives info shows C.J. Yorath was pivotal in its adoption
see Montopedia blog: https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/saskatoon-used-stv-for-city-elections-1921-1926-1938-1942-history-and-info-sources-saskatoon-arc
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1921 federal election
1921 Liberal leader King promised PR
1921 FPTP screwed up 1921 federal election, Winnipeg STV expert Ronald Hooper said
1921 election, like 2021's, produced a minority government. Will Trudeau pull off a King deal?
Ronald Hooper wrote on the 1921 election...
1921, 1925: Canada's FPTP system elected unstable governments
https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/1921-canada-s-fptp-system-elected-minority-government
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1923
THE "ALTERNATIVE VOTE" METHOD EXPLAINED . BY RONALD Hooper. (from Canadian Bar Review 1923) On February 19th, the Dominion House of Co..
THE SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE It is important also to note that the system of proportional representation adopted by all these American..
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Edmonton city use of STV
1923 - Edmonton's first STV city election
Edmonton City elections used STV from 1923 to 1927. Single Transferable Voting, a voter-driven candidate-based form of proportional...
(much on John D. Hunt becoming a bit soured on the STV project after the 1926 STV/Southside guaranteed seat schmozzle)
(see "1926 Alberta election -- Edmonton and Calgary election results proved STV's fairness")
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1923 STV advantages pushed in Ohio 1923
1924 Alberta adopted IRV outside Edm, Calgary and Medicine Hat, in use to 1956
Montopedia blog: https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/instant-runoff-voting-in-alberta-1924-1956-winner-take-all-majoritarian-style-on-the-western-pr
1924 Edmonton Provincial By-Election - Instant-Runoff Voting elects popular choice despite four-way fight -- First use of ranked votes in Alberta election - Communist Party's Bartholomew 3rd place
Montopedia blog: https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/1924-edmonton-provincial-by-election-instant-runoff-voting-elects-popular-choice-despite-four-way
1925
1925 Chile -- PR adopted because unlike previous Cumulative Voting, list system introduced incentives for candidates of the same
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1926 first Alberta election to use STV/IRV
1926 Alberta election -- Edmonton and Calgary election results proved STV's fairness
(Much on Conservatives' view of PR and how Edm Journal turned against PR in city elections)
1926 STV Edmonton provincial election reviewed by STV authority Hallett
1926 "Imperiali quota - works certainly but in a different way as compared to Droop -- 1926 Edmonton STV election"
The Imperiali quota is considerably smaller than even the Droop (which is smaller than the Hare quota). The Droop is the absolute
1926 STV in Cowtown -- STV-PR's first use to elect Calgary MLAs, 1926 election
In the 1926 election for the first time, Calgary elected MLAs through Single Transferable Voting.
1926-1955 What were the effects of using PR-STV in Alberta from 1926 to 1955?
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1927
Understanding the Winnipeg STV provincial election -- understanding the vote transfers table in Wiki "1927 Manitoba election" The count table portraying the 1927 Winnipeg provincial election is flawed in that each count in the table does two purposes - for…
1929-1931 United Kingdom electoral reform
-- Labour Government and the Alternative Vote 1929-1931
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1931-1945 United Kingdom electoral reform -- Barren years, 1931-1945
(the barren years extended to the 1990s)
see Montopedia blog on Jenifer Hart's book:
1935 What if UFA had grouped constituencies outside Edmonton and Calgary? Would that have prevented UFA's 1935 wipe-out?
In 1924 when the UFA reformed the province's election system, the UFA did not group constituencies outside the three largest cities. If..
1935 Five-member STV districts proposed for Alberta (1935)
1935-1971 "Timeline of Canadian electoral reform part 4"
1936
The House of Commons formed a special committee to investigate P.R. and electoral reform. In the end, the Special Committee on..
Hooper
1938-1942 Saskatoon resumed use of STV
1944
Alberta's use of STV in 1944 in Edmonton and Calgary
Some say many voters have trouble voting with preferential ballots and that many votes are either exhausted or in some other way not used...
1944/1945 Albertans Army, Navy and Air Force elected of three Armed Forces MLAs - J. Harper Prowse (Army), Loftus Dudley Ward (Navy) and Fred C. Colborne (Air Force), each elected with just a minority of the vote
(Prowse won with just 17 percent of the vote)
1945 British election (how reform to PR might have avoided WWII, and progress in United Kingdom toward electoral reform from 1930s to 1940s)
R.W.G. Mackay book Coupon or Free? A Study in Electoral Reform and Representative Government - excerpts for emphasis and understanding
1952 SC victory in BC result of voter choice under Alternative Voting
1952 BC election - Alternative Voting produced unexpected but fair results
1952,1955 last Alberta Elections to use STV/IRV
"1952, 1955 Edm elections shows effect of STV"
1972 to present "Timeline of Canadian electoral reform -- Part 5 1972 to the present (PR, STV, MMP, electoral reform referendums)"
1976-1985 Parti Quebecois came to power after recent history of being denied its due share of seats. Promised to incorporate PR into Quebec's electoral system.
first entry in "Timeline of Canadian electoral reform -- Part 5 1972 to the present (PR, STV, MMP, electoral reform referendums)"
1981-
Honduras OLPR in use in 2013 16 MMDs, DM ranged from 2 to 23; 2 districts ( Gracias a Dios* and Islas de la Bahía ), with one..
1988
1988 is stark case where Mulroney did not take majority of votes cast but formed majority gov't and did change Canada in anti-labour way...
2000
2005 A referendum was held in the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 17, 2005, to determine whether or not to adopt the
2010 first time Edmonton city elections used FPTP to elect city councillors
see "Timeline of Edmonton city elections and electoral reform, regressive in recent years."
2014
18 percent elected the winner, 82 percent of the votes cast were disregarded in those two cases in Canadian history 1944 Alberta Army
2018
2018 -- Nepal used STV to elect National Assembly (national upper house) in indirect election. This change was due to passage of a new
In recent Fair Vote Canada panel discussion*, a speaker mentioned that in London's election, a Black woman was elected in the London..
The 2018 London Ontario election was the first in Canada to use ranked voting since 1971. But the arbitrary limit put on voters to mar
The 2018 London Ontario city election stands out as the first time ranked votes have been used in a Canadian government election since.
Block Voting sometimes elected mixed representation; sometimes it does not,. But even when it does, is it proportional? We can look a
It seems the 2018 BC referendum question was set by the Fraser Institute. It was unduly complicated. In 2005, 58 percent of the.
2019
PEI Electoral reform referendum 2019 MMP versus FPTP MMP is combo of FPTP in single-member district and list PR for top-up seats in.
2004-2022, many New Zealand cities adopted STV. Some had already been using STV. These cities used STV in 2022 -- Dunedin City Council Far.
2021 Edmonton city election --
Edmonton's FPTP election system not electing the most-popular candidates
2024 - Edmonton Journal writer reveals she does not understand Edmonton's election system
(Edmonton Journal, June 4, 2024, "Edmontonians aren't pleased: poll" by Jackie Carmichae)
2022 Ottawa city elections - Today's FPTP is a far cry from the STV once demanded by the public in 1915
It has an elected city council across 24 wards and a mayor elected city-wide, each elected using the first-past-the-post voting election
2023
Germany's MMP PR -- Bavaria's open-list MMP -- 2023 reforms to avoid overhang, "negative vote weighting"
Way to address vote waste and fragmentation a way to address the fragmentation of the Bundestag is drop country-wide top-up, do the....
2021-2025
Edmonton city council's pattern of voting parsed, but not revelatory of democratic base
Data shows six councillors form dominant Edmonton City Council voting bloc
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, along with Couns. Keren Tang, Andrew Knack, Aaron Paquette, Jo-Anne Wright, and Ashley Salvador all voted the same way more than three-quarters of the time and were each on the winning side of those votes more than 84 per cent of the time
2025 Edmonton city election -- use of party labels allowed
only two parties - neither labour
blog: "Edmonton city elections used to have party labels. Labels would have made for fairer elections if fair voting had been used."
2024
Today Parliament voted on Motion M-86 for a National Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform. The result was: 102 YES 219 NO.
The 2024 UK election result is surprising and is dis-proportional. Labour took a massive majority government with only 34 percent of the...
Tasmania 2024 state election five districts each electing seven members, using Droop and Gregory method. Bass division seven elected
2025
CBC AM radio proclaimed that voters gave Ford a third majority government . The fact that the news did not report the Conservative's vote.
2025 Canadian election - one-seat ridings of Edmonton-Gateway and Edm-Southeast offer little leeway for voters (Millwoods Mosaic, April 2025)
(slightly-larger version of the article published in Millwoods Mosaic )
As the 2025 election approaches, we see that parts of Millwoods...
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2025 Edmonton municipal election
Edmonton will go to the polls in October 2025 The ballots should say - Warning: your vote will likely not be used to elect anyone In the...
2025 Edmonton city election - open letter to elected mayor and city councillors
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2025 My submission to 2025 BC Special Commission on electoral reform, calling for STV and multi-member districts that are built on cities, Regional Districts or regions of British Columbia
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