Explaining Voting System Reform in Canada, 1874 to 1960

Abstract

This essay explores the efforts to change Canada’s traditional plurality voting system to either majority or proportional voting systems at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels between 1874 and 1960. Specifically, it will provide evidence showing that appeals to populist culture, regional disaffection, and the efforts of individual and party reformers are not sufficient in explaining why, when, and where reforms have occurred. Instead, this essay will demonstrate that serious interest in, and the successful adoption of, majority and proportional voting system reforms in Canada was primarily driven by class factors, specifically the class interests of Canadian farmers and the perceived threat that various labour and socialist parties posed to Canada’s major political parties (and by extension their economic supporters) at different points in Canadian history. By surveying three broad periods of reform efforts, the essay demonstrates that while many different factors—reformer sentiment, party needs, ethnic tensions—may have fueled interest in voting system reforms in Canada, only organized political threats based on class issues motivated any serious or long-standing reform.