A series of recent provincial election results have illustrated  the concerning status of Canada’s democratic state. In 2022, most notably in Quebec and Ontario, majority governments were elected with a surprisingly small share of the total electorate. For example, Quebec recently elected the CAQ with only 37.32% of the vote. In other words, a staggering 62.68% of Quebec voters do not support the party that now holds a majority government in the province. To that effect, it remains critical to examine how Canada’s first-past-the-post system comprises the stability of the political regime by first defining how the system theoretically operates and then by assessing its practical implications. 

According to Patrick Malcolmson (2021), electoral institutions play a decisive role in creating electorate outcomes. It remains crucial to then examine voting systems to understand and gauge reasons that underlie these outcomes. Moreover, Canada’s electoral system postulates that Canada is to be divided into 338 distinct geographical constituencies where each of these regions holds an election. The candidate who receives the highest percentage of the vote in the riding is elected to personify that electoral district at the federal level in the House of Commons (Malcolmson, 2021). Thus, the important emphasis in Canada’s voting systems is that candidates only need a plurality of the vote to win. A plurality implies that the candidate simply needs the highest percentage of the electorate in their specific riding to win. Hence, within ridings, voting discrepancies and obtaining a 50% majority are irrelevant in the make-up of the House of Commons. 

There are numerous negative implications that question the robustness of democracy, as a result of Canada’s Single-Member Plurality system. First, as the candidate of the constituency only needs a plurality of the vote, there is a discrepancy between total vote share and share of seats in the House of Commons, as the single-member plurality system merely emphasizes winning the riding. For example, in the most recent federal election, of the 129 seats Ontario has in the House of Commons, the Liberal Party secured 65% of those seats despite obtaining a mere 41.5% of the popular vote (Malcolmson, 2021). Thus, the votes that take place in constituencies poorly translate to the House of Commons. In addition, this also means that the majority of Canadian voters do not have say in the process of governmental decision-making. Another implication of the first-past-the post system is that it tends to convert minority governments into majority ones. The Liberal Party is a beneficiary of first past the post as it not only increases their total seats in the House, but it also increases the probability of the Liberal Party forming a majority government. 

Before discussing another salient implication of Canada’s single member plurality system, it is important to define what a brokerage party is to understand how “strategic voting” is incorporated into elections. Brokerage parties seek to forge consensus amongst a variety of social groups and garner support via their broad political platforms. The most decisive example of a brokerage party would be the Liberal Party. In turn, voters will move away from smaller parties towards brokerage parties, which they deem as the only feasible alternative. This stems from the fact that actors think they are wasting votes by choosing smaller parties and they are thus drawn to brokerage parties. (Johnston, 2010). Smaller parties struggle because they can only succeed at polls if their support is heavily concentrated in key areas otherwise there is a high-probability these parties would be subject to “strategic voting”.  If their votes are spread out across the country, it is unlikely that they will win any seats even though they would have the same proportion of the total vote share had their support been heavily concentrated in key areas. Another disadvantage of widespread support is the lack of efficiency it creates in determining electoral outcomes (Harms, 2016). In 2019, the Liberals won the election even though they received a full percentage point less than the Conservatives in the popular vote. Moreover, geographic support is a key variable in determining electoral success. Dispersed geographic support favours brokerage parties because candidates simply need to obtain a plurality of a riding to gain a seat at the federal level. Conversely, smaller parties struggle to get represented because even though they have support, they don't have enough of it to receive a plurality. 

Canada’s voting system presents a fascinating case study of the flaws in democratic voting systems. Although there are several flaws that question the fairness of voting in the country, all democratic systems have issues that question their effectiveness in sustaining democracy. To that effect, perhaps defining democracies on a continuum rather than as a binary state is best. In addition, perhaps instituting more features of direct democracy (i.e., referendums) can be brought more into practice to offset Canadian electoral imperfections. These types of questions, however, remain highly controversial.