Time to Move On

Abstract

The reform of Canada’s federal electoral system was a key platform promise of the Liberal party throughout the 2015 election campaign. Justin Trudeau famously proclaimed that the 2015 federal election would be the last in Canada under a first-past-the-post (FPTP) system; but, as several years followed, there was no change, and discourse surrounding the issue has largely fizzled out (Small, 41). Canada’s FPTP system has not changed since confederation, and it remains among only four other democracies worldwide that use “this archaic electoral system” (Rebick). FPTP is considered to create two main issues in Canadian politics: distortion of votes, and heightened regionalism. Voting behaviour and outcomes are currently distorted through unequal vote weight, ‘wasted votes’, and the phenomenon of strategic voting. Regionalism leads to national division, skews which issues are considered electorally important, negatively alters party behaviour, and changes how political preferences are perceived in Canada. Together, these effects are disengaging the Canadian public from political participation. This paper will explain the ways in which vote distortion and regionalism plague Canada’s current electoral system and the health of its democracy, and demonstrate how a shift towards a mixed-member proportional representation (MMPR) electoral system can alleviate those issues. Specifically, MMPR’s provision of a broader second vote nullifies the effect of wasted votes and strategic voting, while discouraging political parties from engaging in behaviour that targets specific electoral regions and produces political polarization.