First-Past-The-Post Analysis

The First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) system (plurality system) is the system that is adopted within the Canadian electoral system to choose their representatives in the federal and provincial elections. There are many voices in Canada and other places where the FPTP is used to change it with the Proportional Representation Systems, which the newly elected liberal government intends to change (Simonsen, 2005). The current federal government is not the only one that criticised the FPTP system but also the former prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper, ten years before he arrived to power, called the Canadian democracy a “benign dictatorship” (Ring, 2014). According to Harper and Flanagan (1996), stated that the electoral system adopted by Canada fall behind when …show more content…
Rebick (2001) states that plurality system allows parties not chosen by the majority of Canadians to take power and dominate the parliament. The author argues that in 1988, the federal elections were based on the debate about the free trade agreement with the United States. While more than 60 percent of Canadians voted against the tories (the only political party that supported the agreement), the tories won with the majority of the seats in the parliament and passed the project of the free trade. McDonald (2013) also states that the current electoral system renforces the feeling of unrepresentation in the political system because, at that time, the tories government won the election with less than 40 percent of the votes but ruled the country as it it won 90 percent of them. McDonald (2013) calls for the adoption of the proportional represeantation system will improve the citizens’ satisfaction and their participation in the elections. The paper suggests that the first-past-the-post system is replaced by the proportional