The Canadian election results are in and they prove how our system of ‘first past the post’ fails to provide fairness to voters and creates a system of false authority.

There is a serious problem with the Canadian electoral system and the most recent election deeply highlights the issue. Canadians need electoral reform as the current process is broken. In the election the results appeared as most people could have predicted, with a Conservative minority government. What most people haven’t been looking at is the issue with proportional representation. By taking a look at how the popular vote carries over to the number of seats a party wins we see major disfunction.

Party – Popular Vote – Seats – Percentage of Voting power in Parliament
Conservative – 37.6% – 143 – 46.4%
Liberal – 26.2% – 76 – 24.7%
NDP – 18.2% – 37 – 12%
BLOC – 10% – 50 – 16.2%
Green – 6.8% – 0 – 0%

By looking at these figures, we see that the Conservatives and Bloc are receiving too much power from their votes and parties like the Liberal, NDP, and most especially the Green Party have their power in parliament reduced. This is a slap in the face to voters who had voted for the Green party as their vote will now translate into zero say in parliament even though the party holds 6.8% of all voters views. Electoral reform needs to happen, and it must happen soon. Voter turnout reached an alltime low in the latest election and its no surprise. Voters are left feeling helpless and that their vote will not matter in the big picture.

Please take a look at the great site, Fair Vote Canada for more information on electoral reform and please get involved. Take a look at Orphan Voters to really highlight the issue of votes not really counting. All statistics can be found at the Elections Canada site.