Reform of the Electoral System
The single member plurality system used in all Canadian federal and provincial elections has many strengths but also reveals serious weaknesses in producing legislatures that reflect the choice of parties made by the voters. Also, recent Canadian elections have witnessed a significant fall in voter turnout, which some say indicates that structural changes are needed in order to encourage greater participation.
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Strengths of Single Member Plurality (SMP) There are several direct advantages of using the
single member plurality system. First, it is far more likely to produce majority governments in a competitive multi-party system. In the 12 federal elections held in the last 40 years, 8 have resulted in majority governments, even though the winning party won a majority of votes only once, in 1984. Majority governments are said to provide stable government and allow direct accountability to the electorate. In contrast, partners in a minority or coalition government can either point fingers at each other or each claim credit at the next election.
SMP also facilitates clear community representation. With the 2004 elections, Canada is divided into 308 constituencies each with their own representative to speak on behalf of local interests.
Disadvantages of SMP Systems
The are a number of disadvantages to the SMP system. The most important is that a party's share of the votes only rarely bears any semblance to the share of seats they win. A candidate only needs one more vote than her or his opponents. The winner's votes beyond that number are "wasted" while the votes for all the other candidates do not help in electing other members of their parties.
Examples of vote/seat distortion abound in Canadian elections. The clearest example is found in the 1987 New Brunswick provincial election, in which the Liberal Party won all the seats in the legislature on the strength of about 60% of the vote. The other 40% of the electorate were left with no direct representation of their policy interests in the legislature.
In the 1997 federal elections, two other serious problems emerged. In Ontario, the Liberals won 99 out of 101 the province's seats. However, a bare majority of voters had voted for other candidates. In PEI, the Liberals won all four seats on the basis of about 45% of the vote.
In the 2006 New Brunswick, 1998 Quebec, 1996 BC, and 1986 Saskatchewan provincial elections, parties won a majority of seats even though they had placed second in the overall province-wide total of the votes.