The First Past the Post (FPTP) system is easy to understand. A nation or province is divided into geographic areas called constituencies. During an election only a single candidate is elected in each constituency. The candidate that gets the most votes in an area earns a seat in Parliament. The political party with the most seats won across the nation becomes the government. The disadvantage of this system is that the number of seats won does not represent the number of votes earned. It is possible for a party to have a majority of seats but less than 50% of the overall national vote. FPTP makes it difficult for smaller parties to get into government so it under represents smaller parties. The advantage of the FPTP system is that it tends
