The Need Of Electoral System Reform In Canada
Elections have a huge influence on the development of societies as the people say they want to be governed in the right way. It also brings in their rights and freedom as well as ensuring political participation, moreover, ensures that the government would review all its demands in compliance with regulations at that time. With such a significant issue, any questions or debate should be taking seriously. For instance, there has been debate on whether the electoral system need to be reformed, referendums and polls show that the FPTP system is considered valuable despite its shortcomings and that only a minority of voters wants it to be modified. On the other hand, others believe the case for electoral reform is strong, and some of them thinking that current electoral system is broken. The following are the three main reasons that I believe there is a case for Canada to reform its electoral system: votes are wasted, parties get more than they deserve, and representation of women and minorities. In addition, if there is alternative option.
Votes are wasted
Not every vote leads to representation in the First-Past-The-Post system that is currently used by Canada, which is also called winner takes all. In this system, politicians in their districts who only need to win one more vote that others in order to get elected and the ballots cast on other candidates gets nothing. Wasted votes are votes which contribute nothing to representation. Four or five parties often participate in every electoral district in Canada, and in that electoral region, the candidate has been elected in whichever party gets the most votes, not even the majority of votes, only more votes than the other parties. Every vote cast for any other party contributes to zero representation, even if they won 30, or even 40 percent.
“Your political beliefs and place of residence determine whether your vote counts.” (fair vote Canada, 2018) which means, you vote worth nothing if you are not holding “correct” political point of view or living in the “incorrect” neighborhood. In this year’s election, an example would be nova scotia, liberal party won 10 out of 11 seats, and what is shocking is they only won 41.4% of popular vote, that means almost half of the vote are wasted. The examples above is not the only case happened in Canadian history or not even the only one in this election that proves how the votes are wasted, there are way too many of them.
Parties get more than they deserve
The voting system of Canada rewards regional parties or national parties that concentrate on a specific region or province of the country, a million votes in a region or province of the country can win a party far more seats than the party gets supported of one million votes from coast to coast. “Canada have strong regional biases that favor parties with strong local support (such as the Bloc Quebecois) and punish parties with broad but even support (such as the Green Party of Canada).” In this year election, Bloc Quebecois and the Green party shares similar total vote share, but huge difference in terms of seats in the house of common. Bloc had 7.7% of the total vote share, but only within Quebec, they got total of 32 seats, compare to green party, which got 6.5% of the vote share, they only had 3 seats. This FPTP voting system exaggerates dramatically discrepancies between areas, but ignores their diversity. A great example in 2019 election would be Saskatchewan and Alberta, it seems like there's nothing like liberal party voters in Saskatchewan and Alberta. All of Saskatchewan’s seats goes to conservative party, however, they only won 64.3% of popular vote. For Alberta, conservative party got 69.2% of popular vote, yet, they got 33 out of 34 seats in house of common, which equivalent to 97% of seats in Alberta, compares to liberal party 13.7% of popular vote got no seats in house of common, and NDP who got 11.5% of popular vote with one seats in house of common, conservative party got way more than they deserve
Representation of Women and Minorities
Women and minorities are less likely to be on the ballot in our systems compare to white men, it is not because they are not qualified. The reason behind this is parties have traditionally favored white male candidates for the 'winner takes all' competition in nominating processes. General public just consider white men are more trustworthy and rational than woman; and more acceptable culture wise than minorities. Although our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formed sex balance cabinet, only 29% of seats in house of common are hold by woman. “A three per cent increase over 2015 and a record for Canada but far short of equal representation.” comparing woman in parliaments world widely, Canada only rank in 61 in 2015. Even with the three per cent in this election, still way behind. The main reason for this is our FPTP system, the average percentage of woman in parliaments that using winner takes all system are much lower comparing to those countries which apply various forms or proportional representation.
Alternative Option
What if Canada electoral system reformed as Trudeau promised in 2015, and what will be changed in this election? First of all, citizens need to know that winner takes all system is not the only option. Indeed, FPTP is a simple and efficient system, however, there are other electoral system could solve the problems above. One of the options of modifying the 2019 election results, which liberal party won 36 more seats than the second-place conservative party, however, their popular vote is 1.3% less than them, is the simple proportional representation method. In this process Canada as a whole expects the number of seats in house of common to be equal to the percentage of total vote population, which means every vote equal and every vote count. In this case, conservative party would form minority government, and NDP would have more than double the seats in house of common, from 24 to 54. And Bloc will have 6 less seats, from 32 to 26. Moreover, big change in the green party, they could have 22 instead of 3 seats, which is seven times more than the seats they actually had. And people’s party could have 6 seats instead of zero. In addition, the mixed-member proportional system. The districts would be served by elected representatives on a basis of the FPTP. Nonetheless, the majority of the MMP versions will require voters to vote for their preferred party on second ballot. Furthermore, there are alternative vote system, party list system, single transferable vote system and etc.
The electoral reform is a hot issue that need to be taking seriously, it is not only for the general public to better express what their demands are, but also making this country heathier. Numerous factors need to be taking in to consideration for a successful reform of electoral system, first of all, current system need to be examined, full understanding of shortcomings and mechanisms are a must. Secondly, the rules of reform and the roles that major institution plays. These include who has the power to change the structure and whether constitutional amendment is required. Moreover, the reform process and political reforming powers have referendum as a tool to force the change. Lastly, review the possible alternative options to replace current system. Hopefully, the electoral reform will bring the benefit below: no need to do strategic voting to avoid who we dislike, and every vote will count, higher turn-out on vote especially on youth, better representation of women and minorities, well balanced local and national parties’ representation, more diversity and political options. In conclusion, in this paper, the importance of electoral system is present as well as the lethal flaw of our FPTP system, such as votes are wasted, parties get more than they deserve, and representation of woman and minority. Furthermore, there are protentional substitute for FPTP could solve those problems, they may not be perfect, but it is a progress towards better country. Thus, I believe the case for electoral reform is strong.
