First Past The Post Electoral System In Canada

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The spread of democracy has been one of the largest and most widely heralded trends in government worldwide – its prevalence and impact has been the subject of much political discussion and debate. In many cases, however, fewer observers focus on the electoral system used by the democratic governments themselves, which are in many cases equally important to the ultimate shape of the government formed. In general, the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system that is used in Canadian Federal Elections has excluded and prevented third parties from having a large impact on the national stage post-WWII, forcing a bipartisan system of government. Central to this paper is an analysis on how third parties, in this case minor broad-based parties …show more content…

Both parties will tend to be broad-based and attempt to target as many groups as possible: this is because any smaller parties will not stand a chance in competing in most districts, hence causing parties to consolidate in order to be viable (ACE Project, 2012). This analysis by the ACE Project shows how larger parties may tend to squeeze out smaller ones, and cause smaller parties to be excluded relative to their actual level in government, hindering their ability to act on a national stage, providing a normative basis for their exclusion in Canadian …show more content…

Western Canadians seeking a right-wing alternative to the Progressive Conservatives founded the Reform party of Canada in 1987 (Mansbridge, 1987). Quickly gaining support, they succeeded in gaining numerous seats at the expense of the Progressive Conservatives in the 1993 election, splitting the right-wing vote between them. From 1987 to 2003, the Reform party (later known as the Canadian Alliance) and the Progressive Conservatives fought a long, protracted battle for control of the right-wing vote, enshrining a long period of Liberal dominance, until the two parties merged in the “unite the right” movement. Both the Reform party and the Progressive Conservative party faced many seemingly irreconcilable differences: Reform supported individualism, small government and a tougher line on Quebec (Rawson, 1997) while the Progressive Conservatives supported the red-tory principle of noblesse oblige and included Quebec patriots in their broad-based coalition. Although a majority of Canadians and Progressive Conservative members opposed such a merger (several moved to the Liberals as a result), the political reality of vote-splitting meant that the Liberals would be “in nearly permanent power” if unity was not found. Indeed, Progressive Conservatives and Reform party MPs had already begun

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