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
…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
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