ipl-logo

Summary: The Canadian Electoral System

1369 Words6 Pages

Electoral systems are very influential in political systems, as it is directly related to the decision-making process and the democratic institution of any given country. This is true in the case of Canada as well, as the current electoral system in Canada have profound direct influence in the voting incentives and therefore voting behavior of its citizens. However, many important political scientists and academics pointed out that the influence is not a positive one, when commenting on Canada’s current First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) or Single Member Plurality systems. For example, Jeffrey Simpson (2001), a well-known academic and journalists, when addressing the electoral system in Canada, referred to Canada as a “friendly dictatorship” in his …show more content…

Jackson (1987) also observed the connection between the current Canadian electoral system, and the declining voter turnout in elections faced by Canada over the last 4 …show more content…

In the case of constituencies, many in the political sciences notices that in constituencies with small and loyal electorates to one particular party, they can be simply marked off as “safe” by the party (Leduc, 2009, p. 22), effectively disfranchising those who casts dissenting votes as the riding electorate population already favors that particular party, likely leading those dissenting voters to simply abstain. Conversely, when a riding is deemed “hopeless”, due to already favoring another party in its demographics, a party may abstain from effective campaigning and mobilization of its voters, and respectively its voters would also not see the value of voting (Gallego, Rico & Anduiza, 2011, p. 160). It can be suggested that both these occur during elections, because of Canada’s stubborn adherence to this electoral system. Minorities are not safe from these disproportionalities as well, as Gwendolyn Moncrieff-Gould (2015) observes that due to the heavy concentration of immigrant minority groups in urban centers (85%) where riding populations are high, and the existence of lowly-populated rural constituencies that are dominated by whites, by simple mathematics minorities suffer a lower value of their vote per capita compared to their white

Show More
Related

  • Re Senate Reform Analysis

    1604 Words  | 7 Pages

    This means that if the legislature can abolish of change the nature of the Senate in such a way that there is an imbalance in the check and balances of the Canadian political system then this power is weak and without effect. Thus, this paper will examine the response of the Supreme Court to these questions, in order to determine how it interprets the power of the legislature and the role of the Senate within Canadian politics. It will do this by examining the primary text alone and any case law examined by the Supreme Court in this

    Read More

  • Summary: Unfair Representation From Racial Gerrymandering

    386 Words  | 2 Pages

    The conflict of on party receiving more representation turnout for racial gerrymandering has introduce opposing views to this system. Due to a common focus on racial diversity and representation there has been an increase in programs to solve this issue. Racial gerrymandering tries to repair certain issues although it promotes a single party with unequal representation.

    Read More

  • Canadian Senate Reform Analysis

    1926 Words  | 8 Pages

    Many Canadians know the senate to be “the sober second thought” of the parliamentary system. The senate’s original purpose was to be a voice for regional interests, a representation of Canadian society, and to address legislative bills. Despite the fact, it has never successfully accomplished its original purposes. Many Canadians believe that the senate serves no real purpose, but this is because the senate has no dominant powers when it comes to performing its functions. In this essay, I argue that the Canadian senate appointment process of senators should be reformed.

    Read More

  • Effects Of The Alienation Of Western Provinces

    861 Words  | 4 Pages

    Western alienation is described as “a feeling of resentment by some inhabitants of western Canada against perceived favouritism by the national government towards the western provinces” (Collins, 2015). This alienation from the government can also be seen and demonstrated in the Senate, leading the growing western provinces to be underrepresented. The current system of allocating seats has not been significantly changed since confederation (Boyer, 2014).This has caused the alienation of provinces and discourse throughout regions due to the lack of considerable representation and recognition of distinct attributes and needs of provinces who are grouped together when they should be considered a region on it’s own (Boyer, 2014, 221-223). The

    Read More

  • The Effect Of Gerrymandering On Democracy

    657 Words  | 3 Pages

    The act of gerrymandering does threaten democracy because it aids a specific political party,it is unfair to the voters, and it allows politicians to have control over the voters. Within the gerrymandering game, the political party that was supported was commonly content and fully supported the plan while the opposition was almost always completely against the decision making it difficult to compromise. The point of a democracy is to represent everyone who has the power to vote. The two main parties in the United States are Republican and Democratic and yield the highest chance of having an official be elected for state governments, or local district governments compared to third parties. When one party gerrymanders, they weaken the other party 's chances of gaining power.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Electoral College

    1104 Words  | 5 Pages

    For many years, America’s voting system has been criticized, with the main point of interest being the Electoral College. Some say that the Electoral College is necessary to streamline and simplify the voting process, while others say that it is outdated and takes away power from American citizens. After investigating the subject, it is clear that the Electoral College should be abolished due to the three major defects its critics find in the system; its undemocratic nature, its tendency to give small states’ votes too much power, and its disastrous effects on third-party candidates. The first, and possibly largest, defect in the Electoral College is its undemocratic nature. A professor of political science once said that “the Electoral College violates political equality” (Edwards 453).

    Read More

  • Personal Reflection On Voting In Canada

    754 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abi H. Civic Reflection Issue 1- Change in Point of View: In Canada, voter turnout has become a major issue; as there is a large amount of the population that does not vote in elections. Back in 2008, a total of 58% of the countries` population voted in the election. This is a startling low number, which since has begun to increase only slightly in recent years. In a democratic society, voting is essential for it to function with its full potential. Doing so enacts one of your basic responsibilities as a citizen, as well as shows that you are staying involved in your community and government.

    Read More

  • Low Voter Turnout Essay

    940 Words  | 4 Pages

    The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.

    Read More

  • DBQ Essay: The Electoral College

    967 Words  | 4 Pages

    As one of the most hotly debated areas of the US government, the Electoral College deserves to be given a more in-depth look. It was originally founded as a way to prevent a lack of informed voters from electing an unqualified president. Now, it still serves its original purpose, but has become far less necessary in an age of easily accessible information. Despite having some positive points, the Electoral College is too overburdened by issues like unfair vote distribution and a high failure rate to be an effective system. The way the Electoral College distributes votes is overtly favorable to less populated states.

    Read More

  • Essay On Low Voter Turnout

    1151 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is clear that American voters tend to avoid local elections and off-year elections. Run-off elections are also likely to register lower voter turnout as compared to first-round elections. The larger the gap between first round elections and run-off elections, the higher the decline in voter turnout. Moreover, there are lower percentages of young people voting as compared to the older population. This is an important point to note since it highlights that young people do not have information guiding them on the importance of voting.

    Read More

  • Mackenzie King And Sir John A. Macdonald's Analysis

    1574 Words  | 7 Pages

    For a long time the debates had been going about how was the better prime minister of Canada. On the the top of most lists of best prime ministers are Mackenzie King and Sir John A. Macdonald. For example, according to the Expert Survey that was made in 2013 “Laurier came first, Macdonald second, and King third, but the difference in their overall scores was negligible”. Both prime ministers had a strong vision of the country that helped shaped Canada to become the country it is today(in 2015). Thesis: Sir John A.Macdonald was one of the founding fathers, but William Lyon Mackenzie King had to lead the country through the part of Depression and WWII, and they both have made different positive contributions to Canada and are highly respected

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of FPTP In Canada

    935 Words  | 4 Pages

    On top of that, the party that wins can actually have less of the popular vote than the party that lost (obviously coming second in this example). 1997 was considered a very blatant year when it came to issues with FPTP, as an example, the Reform Party of Canada and the Progressive Conservatives had less than one percentage point separating their vote (19.4 percent to 18.8 percent), but the Reform party elected 40 more MPS than the Progressive Conservatives.1 This example shows a clear unfairness in how the voting system works in FPTP, as the voters who voted for the Progressive Conservatives were not being represented fairly. This is where FPTP's major flaw comes into play, it punishes smaller parties that may have wide support across the country, but no centralized support bases anywhere. Parties such as the Green party stand no chance in most areas of the country and hardly get any seats, with 3.4% of the votes in the 2015 federal election, it would be assumed that they would have close to that many seats , however, they had one single seat which converts to 0.3% of the seats.2 Of course, it is important to take into consideration that with the FPTP system voters may be inspired to vote more strategically to not “throw away their

    Read More

  • Strengths Of Democracy In Canada

    1065 Words  | 5 Pages

    Research Paper On Democracy in Canada Name : Harpreet Kaur Introduction The word democracy describes a Political System of any country. Dramatic changes have taken place in recent Years at the national level with respect to the day today functioning of our constitutional democracy. In a Democratic country like Canada , America all the citizens that are eligible have the rights to participate directly or indirectly in decision making that affect them.

    Read More

  • Majority Rule Advantages And Disadvantages

    1312 Words  | 6 Pages

    "Candidate with the highest number of the vote wins the right to represent the particular seat in the House of Commons", according to CBC news. There are some limitations regarding this method. First of all, it could possibly happen that candidate with less than half vote wins, which means it only reaches minority people's desired outcome. In addition to the tactical voting, the two-party system could be a serious problem. Since only the first matters, candidates with the low possibility to win may exist the election.

    Read More

  • Essay On Vote In Democracy

    736 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.

    Read More

More about Summary: The Canadian Electoral System

Open Document