Ftp Voting System

Compromising the Canadian Citizens Voice

Fascinatingly, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are the only main democracies which still function on the basis of a single member plurality (SMP) (also known as First-past-the-post (FPTP)) voting system. The SMP system is the most basic voting system in use and has been used in Canada since confederation in 1867. "First-past-the-post in the 21st century is like using a hand-crank telephone rather than the internet. It was good in its day, but that century is long gone." The SMP system function on the basis that every voter is allowed to vote for one candidate and the winner of the election is the candidate who receives the most votes. In Canada the SMP system is applied under the following circumstances: Canada is divided in to 308 ridings and each riding has multiple candidates running to represent the citizens of that riding. Each candidate is usually associated to a political party but is not limited to this. Essentially the party who wins the most riding is that party who will form government. Generally, the party elected should win more than half the ridings to form a majority government. However, this is not always the case because the oppositions may not allow for one party to take half of the ridings. In this case, minority governments are formed. Since confederation, Canada has seen eleven minority governments. Currently, the most contentious issue in Canadian political affaires is that of Canada's current electoral system. In recent years, many Canadians have come to the realization that Canada's single member plurality voting system is producing questionably legitimate majority governments. Consequently, issues of electoral reform are surfacing all across Canada, specifically in PEI, New Brunswick, British Columbia and Ontario. The Canadian single-member pluralistic voting system contains flaws that compromise the integrity of Canada's political electoral system by misrepresenting the Canadian citizen's point of view. Such flaws which are compromising the representation of Canadians are the popular vote, unequal riding representation and distortion. However many of the problems can be rectified with electoral reform and the implementation of a system of proportional representation.

The Flaws

Although the SMP system is less costly, easier and quicker to adminster than most other electoral systems, Canadian citizens points of view are beeing misrepresented by the use of a SMP voting system. The SMP voting system comprimises the democractic integratic of our country by dismissing the popular vote, compromising riding boundaries, distorting results and not representing all of the citizens intrests. Arguably, the Canadian SMP system does not provide accurate representation of the general Canadian population. Therefore, the general population has become less involved with Canadian politics because they feel that the system no longer addresses their concerns.

The topic of popular vote is one of the largest issues which is said to compromise the integrity of Canadian citizens representation. As a result of the way SMP system works in Canada, a political party can be elected into government by gaining the most ridings with out having the majority of votes in their favor. This exact predicament occurred during the 31st Canadian election . In 1979, the progressive conservative's party was elected in 136 ridings and obtained a total of 4,111,606 votes. However, the liberal party was elected in 114 ridings and obtained a total of 4,595,319 votes. Ultimately, the progressive conservatives formed a minority government with only 35.89% of the popular vote, yet the liberals held 40.11% of the popular vote . Nevertheless, this election exemplified the misrepresentation which occurs as a result of the SMP system because even though the progressive conservatives were elected to represent Canada, the majority of Canadians favored the liberals. Moreover, the problem of popular vote versus elected government is tightly knit with riding populations.

In addition to the misrepresentation induced by ridings and popular vote, there is also the misrepresentation from unequal riding populations. Given that the SMP system works on the principal of "One man one vote" (OMOV) we expect that every citizen's vote is equally weighted. However, this is not the case because of the disproportionate numbers of population which compose each riding. The main argument surrounding this dilemma is that there are regions in Canada which have less population than others, yet have more ridings and more seats to represent less people. An example of this situation can be seen when we compare Prince Edward Island and Thornhill, Ontario. P.E.I has an approximate 135,294 people and Thornhill has approximately 116,840 people . However, P.E.I has four ridings and Thornhill only one, yet it's population is only less than 18 454 people. This unequal ratio of ridings to population destroys the principal of one man one vote because 135,294 people's votes count towards four seats whereas 116,840 people's votes only count towards one seat. Consequently, the residents of P.E.I have more voting power than those of Thornhill. This undermines the principal of OMOV, and in turn challenges the fundamental principal of the SMP system.

Today, the prime concern being raised is with regards to the current SMP voting system and its ability to produce radically distorted election. In 1993 the elections was so drastically distorted that the liberal party was able to form an illegitimate majority. In turn, Jean Chrйtien's liberals won 177 out of 301 seats in the House of Commons. This meant that the liberals possessed 58.8% of the house and were able to form a majority government. However, Chrйtien's liberals only won 5,647,952 votes a total of 41.24 % of the popular vote . Funnily enough, this election had a relatively high voter turnout of 69.6% of the general population. However, 6.04 million registered voters did not vote . This means that only 28.4% of the registered voters actually voted liberal. Throughout this election the liberals achieved particularly high results at the demise of the progressive party who won 2 seats with 16.04% of the popular vote. Basically, the liberals were able to gain a seat in the house with every 31 909 votes, whereas the progressive conservative only gained one seat for every 1 093 211 votes. This meant that a liberal voter had 34 times more influence then a progressive conservative voter. As well, the block Quйbecois had just formed as a separatist party yet were still able to win the official opposition with 54 seats and only 13.52% of the popular vote . Furthermore,