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The Electoral System Of Canada

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From an electoral perspective, each province is perfectly divided into different electoral districts or ridings as they are commonly referred. A single MP represents each electoral district. During an election, the candidate who gets the chance to be the member of parliament of the province in question is the individual who garners the highest number of votes or plurality in the ridings regardless of whether the ballots represent the majority of the votes cast or not.

The leader of the party that successfully secures the highest number of seats in the House is cordially invited by the acting General Governor to form the government and become the new Prime Minister (Joyal, 2014). The Canada Elections Acts governs the main body that oversees elections in Canada.

This Act perfectly details the required conduct of the election body, the elected members to the House of Commons, administrative matters, as well as communication and financial matters related to the electoral system and the election process in general. Section 313 (1) of the Act states that after the complete verification of voting results, the acting returning officer must declare a validly elected candidate as the candidate who has obtained the highest number of votes from the concluded election (Joyal, 2014).

Unlike other countries where specific references to the electoral system are contained in the constitution, the Canadian constitution does not included any specific references to what electoral system should do to oversee the election of member to the Houses of Commons. The constitutions of Canada does not include any specific references to what an electoral system should do to oversee the election of member to the House of Commons.

The constitution of Canada, however, contains that can be operational in the electoral system. For instance, section 51 of the 1867 Constitution Act describes the formula on how the seats in the House of Common will be allocated (Joyal, 2014).

Under the FPTP electoral system, multiple votes are cast based on the elective seats present (Renwick, 2010). The election Act allows an elector to cast his/her vote for an aspiring candidate who will present their electoral district in which the voter resides.

Furthermore, the participation of voters in elections procedures has been varied over the years. In the past quarter of the century, voter turnout in Canada has been dismal. In the last six elections since 2000, four of the polls have had the lowest number of voter turnaround with an estimated turnout of about 60 % of the entire eligible voters (Frizzel & Pammett, 1997). The highest turnouts in Canadian history were in the years 1958, 1962 and the year 1963 where over 79% of eligible voters turned out to vote (ibid).

Last but not least, the current prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has recently emphasized that ‘‘We have to know that when we were casting a ballot that it counts it needs to matter’’ (2018). This simply distributes that, if the government is willing to shift its electoral system such as from FPTP to PR, we need to consider that once votes are aggregated, parties are getting chance to take a number of seats in proportion under the party banner.

As such mixed member proportional model also seems suitable, however, years ago, the elections in Ontaria tried to adopt this system. Unlikely it didn’t pass the election (Globalnews.ca, 2018). Trudeau also added, the electoral system would give a chance for voters to cast two ballots. One of them for their candidate and another for their favoured party (ibid).

Basically, government’s electoral system consists the competition among its parties, and it is highly beneficial for the smaller parties to represent the important role in the parliament if the electoral system shifts to the PR system such as Green Party. Even so, arguably faces problematic step in electoral unconcern. Therefore, there is a turnoff indication to back up adjustment to a relative representation system to hit into principles such as equity, chance and preference (Frizzell & Pammett, 1997).

Consequently, the aggregated factors helps to evaluate the topic that Canada has been reluctant to shift its electoral system. FPTP is notorious for progressing the subjective majority governments and wasting tons of votes. A mixed-member proportional representation system would be beneficial to substitute the FPTP system.

Thus, it utilized by Canada. Spreading political power in both countries, providing electors with more preferences and allowing more sections of population to take the place in the legislative assembly, will take long-run period of stableness for democracy.

In terms of theoretical and political aspect, replacement of the electoral system in our current days it seems not as guaranteed policy, Thereby, Duverger Law undermines that if the government govern its country’s policy and the electoral system, it does not need to use the double ballots, which tends only to favour multiparty system.

Cite this paper

The Electoral System Of Canada. (2020, Sep 23). Retrieved from https://samploon.com/the-electoral-system-of-canada/

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