Advantages And Disadvantages Of Canada's Electoral System

The electoral system in Canada has been utilized for over a century, and although it has various strengths which have helped preserve the current system, it also has glaringly obvious weaknesses. In recent years, citizens and experts alike have questioned whether Canada’s current electoral system, known as First Past the Post (FPTP) or plurality, is the most effective system. Although FPTP is a relatively simple and easy to understand electoral system, it has been criticized for not representing the popular vote and favouring regions which are supportive of a particular party. FPTP does have many strengths such as simplicity and easy formation of majority governments, however, its biggest drawback is that it does not proportionally represent

The authors describe some of the advantages of a MMP system: “Mixed electoral systems provide fairly proportional outcomes, maintain the geographic link between constituents and members, provide for greater choice, and allow the opportunity for smaller parties to represented in Parliament” (p. 11). This system works better than the current FPTP or plurality system, because it allows citizen’s a second opportunity to have a voice. This is important because it would allow our minority groups to have a greater political influence. As mentioned earlier, in the current system all votes for candidates who lost, were insignificant to the election outcome. The authors explain: “Only those votes that go to the eventual winner count towards electing a representative, which may discourage people from voting or promote disaffection with the system” (p. 3). Alternatively, the MMP system allows citizen’s a second opportunity to elect party members in order to proportionally represent the popular

Barnes, Lithwick, and Virgint explain: “Canadians appeared to prefer the current FPTP system to a system which includes proportional representation. However, the consultations also found that respondents were “open” to considering change, including a voting system in which every vote for a party counts” (p. 1). As previously mentioned, the MMP system still aligns with FPTP in the way that it still uses a single member to represent each constituency, and the first vote which a citizen casts for a candidate will still use FPTP principles to calculate the winner. The main difference between these two systems is the party vote, which is used to fill the remaining seats and compensate for any discrepancies would allow Canadians a greater say in who is