Why Is Canada Not Truly Democratic

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Canada is not truly democratic because it has the Senate that supports the Prime Minister on every decision made, it uses First Past The Post (FPTP) that determines the leader based on each parties votes which is not the majority and it has a voter turnout that is low which shows that majority of the population don’t take part in voting. In a democracy the people rule which means that citizens have the right to vote, people have the right to run for office and majority rules. When a country is a democracy the opinion of the greater number should prevail, the rights of minorities will be protected, no one is above the law, all citizens have fundamental rights and citizens have a sense of responsibility to their community. However, there are …show more content…

In a FPTP system, a candidate is required to represent a certain party in a certain area called a riding. However, each riding only equals to 1 seat in the house of commons. The party with the most seats is considered as the winner and the government for the next four years. Even though, the party with the most seats is considered as the government most of the votes are wasted which makes it non-democratic. Votes are wasted because the winner takes all. For example, in a horse race, the first one to pass the post wins even though the others tried with their best effort. In this system, the votes are counted independently and not together. When the votes are counted together the results show that the government does not have to be the majority’s choice. An example of this would be when a winning party gets 40 seats in an election that has 100 seats. In this case, the other parties all together have 60 votes. This shows that the majorities don’t want that party to win, but they will win because that party has the most votes compared to each individual party. In addition, the other votes become counted as nothing where it is shown that the majority does not matter in this case. This voting system proves the majority doesn’t matter which is a key feature of a democracy. FPTP is a good system used in most countries, but it makes a democracy less …show more content…

In Canada voting is a key example for Canada not being truly democratic. Many think that voting is not important, but it is. Voting is fundamental to a democracy because it’s how citizens get to put their voice in and choose who governs them. Voting is also the only form of participation in which every citizen is equal and missing that chance decreases the equality given. It also doesn’t take many ballots to make a huge difference, but by not giving in a ballot that difference isn’t made. In Canada voting isn’t mandatory which cause the voter turnout to be low. When the voter turnout is low it means that there is a low amount of commitment and loyalty to Canada political system. Canada’s voter turnout is 60% compared to Australia’s which is 95%. Many believe that Australia’s voter turnout is high because their voting is mandatory. Even though, the voter turnout has increased in Canada over the years it still shows that the majority of the population aren’t voting. This explains the fact that only a small amount of the population are voting. Since a democracy is about the majority it cannot be a true democracy when so little people are voting. Many don’t understand that voting is important, but with a low voter turnout, Canada is less

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