Summary: The Canadian Electoral System

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As a parliamentary government, majority of Canadian and non-Canadian citizens lack the knowledge to fully comprehend the logistics of the Canadian government and the electoral system. So when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an early election on August 2015, many did not understand its significance on the upcoming election. Harper believed that an early election would give him the advantage over other party leaders and would help him stay in office, but he was wrong. Despite the clever nature of this decision, where the timing conveniently worked with the newly passed Fair Elections Act and the Mike Duffy trial, the Conservatives faced devastating loss against the Liberals which can be greatly attributed to the Canada being a parliamentary government with a single member plurality. The Conservative party would not have lost a large amount of seats in Parliament had Canada used a proportional representation electoral system. Consequently, there would be no Liberal landslide and the Conservatives would still hold significant power. Thesis:…. In 2014, the Conservatives successfully passed the divisive Fair Elections Act, which is arguably part of their brilliant plan to tilt the electoral playing field in their favour. This act brings major changes to Canadian electoral law for voters, candidates, parties and the overseers of a fair election. It also boosts penalties for offences, reduce voter fraud and legitimizes political parties (Wingrove and Hannay, 2015). However, one important change that the act brings with regards to political financing is found in section 18 (h): “The enactment permits higher spending limits for registered parties and candidates if an election period is longer than the 37-day minimum (cite FEA, Justice law Wesbite). This means that the longer the campaign period is, the more money parties and candidates can spend. Prior to this act, the spending limit on elections was fixed. Now, every additional day above the 37 day-minimum guarantees parties an addition 1/37th of that limit and therefore, the spending limit for political parties rose to $53 Million (Maggi, 2015). Since the Conservatives have more than twice as much money in their banks, calling an early election guarantees Harper and the Conservatives a monetary advantage. Subsequently, the early election did not only benefit the Conservatives money-wise. One of the main hurdles the Conservatives faced in winning was the controversy surrounding the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Office in the Sen. Mike Duffy Trial. The controversy lies within Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, and his decision to write a $90, 000 personal cheque to cover the senator’s “payment” for his questionable living expenses that came to light in 2012. Many Conservative supporters became dubious towards Harper’s credibility and competence as a Prime Minister. Therefore, a longer election gave the Conservatives a chance to transgress the public’s attention from the Mike Duffy trial towards the elections. Additionally, since Harper announced the election in August, he believed that the public wont pay attention until September or October, which is when he will reap the benefits of having money advantage in TV ads …show more content…
Without a doubt the Conservatives would still have lost, but the Liberals would not have won by a landslide and there would not have been a significant loss of Conservatives in Parliament had it been a proportional representation electoral system, as aforementioned. Electoral systems are formulas to determine how the votes are translated to seats. There are four types of Electoral Systems: majoritarian formulas, semi-proportional systems, proportional representation, and mixed systems. The focus will be on one of the majoritarian formulas, First-past-the-post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR). In a FPTP or plurality system, countries are divided into territorial single-member constituencies, called ridings in Canada. Votes are then cast to each constituency with a single ballot (marked by an X) for one candidate and the candidate with the most votes returns to or takes a seat in office. Consequently, the party with the majority of seats, combined from all the constituencies, forms the governments (Norris, 1997, p. 301). This “winner takes all” nature of the system boosts the presence of the leading party in legislation, while remaining parties receive mere rewards (Norris, 1997, p. 301). Moreover, it exaggerates the share of seats of the leading party and handicaps minor parties, chiefly those

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