As most of us know the 2021 Canadian Election came to a close yesterday. Nothing changed, and in my opinion it was a big waste of time and money. This brings to light the many problems with the election system in Canada.

Before we can dissect the specific problems with the election, first we need an understanding of how it’s structured.

Let’s start with the basics. Canada is a democracy which means “Democracy is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation. Or put more simply, everyone in the country votes on who they want to lead the country. Within this Canadian democracy we have many parties (group of people who share the same political views) that the citizens can vote for based off their own political views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With that out of the way we can’t now delve into the specifics of how the Canadian Government is structured from which the problems stem from.

Canada’s government is split into three different branches. The Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. First, let’s talk about the Executive Branch or Cabinet. The people who make up the Executive Branch are the most important people in Canada’s government. This includes our current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. They are the ones who make the important decisions in this country. They introduce bills (proposed policies), which could then transform into laws that the citizens and businesses will have to abide by. The Cabinet also holds the monarch of Great Britain (King or Queen) who is supposed to be the highest ranking individual throughout all of the country although their power is pretty much just symbolic at this point. Since Queen Elizabeth cannot be in Canada 24/7 there is an appointed Governor General who is given the powers of the monarch. This system is called a Constitutional Monarchy. Today, the only real reason we haven’t cut ties with Great Britain and this system is because of sentimental reasons, and it’s supposed to guarantee a responsible government in our country.

This leads us into our first problem. Although the Constitutional Monarchy does not have a direct influence on the voting process, I still believe it may have some impact. The way I see it, this system is unjustifiably complicated and doesn’t provide much benefit in return. What may happen is that a citizen of Canada looking to vote who doesn’t know much about how our government will start to research about the way that it’s structured. Then they will come across a mess of weird ties to the monarchy and how they didn’t know Great Britain had any say in Canada’s government and the person will become very confused. Then what may happen is that person may decide not to vote because they are so confused and this is a big problem. Cutting ties with Great Britain will make our government structure simpler and easier to understand.

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Now let’s look into the Legislative Branch or Parliament. The Parliament has the power to take the policies proposed by the Cabinet and make them laws through a vote of the Members of Parliament. The Parliament is the most powerful branch of government. Other authorities they have include raising taxes, regulate government spending, and declaring war. The Parliament includes the Governor General, then the 105 senators on the advice of the Prime Minister, and the 338 Members of Parliament. When a policy is proposed by the cabinet, is has to go through the House of Commons before it can be passed. The House of Commons is 338 Members of Parliament (MP’s) who are elected by voting citizens of each riding. A riding is a chunk of a province based off population. This means there can be many ridings in a small area or just one riding covering a very large area. When you vote in the election, you vote for your riding, if the majority of citizens vote for liberals, then it will be a liberal riding, therefore a liberal candidate gets elected as a MP and gets a seat in the House of Commons and can be one of the 338 MP’s who vote to pass or reject new policies proposed by the cabinet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_of_the_Canadian_parliament

This Riding system brings more problems into the government system. This time, directly affecting the voting process, altering the number of seats a party will hold and the outcome of the election. The first problem is regional misrepresentation. This is when a party gets less seats than another party even though they had more votes due to riding concentration. An example of this could be the 2008 Canadian election. Bloc Québécois won 49 seats with just 10% votes across the country while the NDP party had 18% of the votes nation wide, but only got 37 seats! This is because our voting system awards more seats to parties with support in just one or two regions while nation wide support is not as rewarded. Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_federal_electoral_districts

The second problem is how some votes are worth more than others. Undoubtedly there will be ridings in which some parties historically win over more often and will most likely win in the future as does the opposite where some parties will most likely lose. There will also be riding where the result will be too close to call between parties. Here lies the problem. Most of the competing parties resources will go to these ridings as it would be a waste to put full effort into trying to win a riding when the odds are stacked heavily against you. Or a riding that you have already won over. Citizens in these conflicted ridings will have a vote of greater significance as opposed to one in a riding that’s already decided it’s party before the election even started. Source

Continuing with the Legislative Branch, now we’ll look at the senate. The senate hold 105 members appointed by the Governor General and recommended by the prime minister. The senate approves legislation passed by the House of Commons before it becomes law.

Lastly is the Judicial Branch. The Judicial branch can throw out laws passed by the Legislative Branch, and enforce Canada’s laws via the Canadian Court system. The highest court of Canada is known as the Supreme Court. This is where laws that are deemed unconstitutional are thrown out. The court interprets and applies the laws of Canada.

If you want a way more in depth video on how the Canadian Government is structured you can check out this video.

If you want a simpler explanation on how the Canadian Government is structured you can check out this video.

So how is the Canadian Government elected? Well we already talked about a good chunk of it previously but I’ll go over it again, then reflect on the real election results, and go over the last major problem of our voting system.

http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/can-govt-today/can-govt-today-02-chart.html

First an election is called. This happens every 4 years, but the Prime Minister can call one anytime they like. After an election is called, the parties campaign for at least 36 days and up to 50 days. Then the voting starts. Citizens of Canada make their way to voting polls within their riding and vote for a party of their choice. Each vote is counted within their riding, and whichever party has the most votes at the end in one riding is awarded one of 338 seats in the House of Commons. This means that a party can have the most votes country wide, but still lose the election. After all the votes have been counted, the party with the most seats is the winner and the new (or same) Prime Minister is elected.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/federal/2021/results/

Now let’s reflect on the 2021 Canadian election. As I stated previously, I believe it was a big waste of time and money as nothing changed. I think Trudeau’s idea was that since he handled COVID pretty well if he called an election to try and get a majority government. He waited until the right time when he knew he was in a good place regarding his performance, but his plan didn’t work. He still won but he didn’t get majority. You could see evidence of this plan right at the start of the election. All the liberal signs were up days before any other parties had their signs up. This leads me to believe Justin had been waiting a while to make this move then told his MP’s to start making signs before the election started so they would have them all ready on the first day, getting a head start on the competition.

The last problem is one that most people in Canada have recognized. It’s the fact that most of our votes don’t count. Unless you voted for the winning candidate in your riding, your vote is literally useless as it no longer deciding how much representation each party holds in parliament. Source

We all know the election system is in need of reform and even the parties have plans in place to fix this. I just hope it actually happens.