Home > National Topics > Canada National Platform > Electoral Reform
Electoral reform
Canada's current electoral system is a "first past the post" (FPTP) system. The candidate with the most votes in a riding wins a seat in the House of Commons and represents that riding as its MP. FPTP in Canada is responsible for electing a number of false majority governments. A false majority government occurs when a Party holds the majority of seats in the House of Commons but didn’t win 50% the popular vote in the election. For example, the majority governments of our recent Prime Ministers, Justin Trudeau (2016-recent) and Stephen Harper’s (2006-2015) were false majorities.
​
Elevate
The New System
However, if Canada runs a Mixed-member proportional representation system (MMPR), each voter gets two votes — a Party Vote and an Electorate Vote:
The Party Vote
Under a MMPR system voters would get to cast two votes during an election. First, voters get to vote for which party they would like to represent them on a national level, making this vote largely the deciding factor of how many seats a party gets in Ottawa. Parties with a bigger share of the Party Vote get more seats in Parliament
The Electorate Vote (Vote for a candidate)
Voters would then get a second vote to select who they would like to represent them within their own local riding. This is called the Electorate Vote. The candidate with the most votes in the Electorate Vote becomes a Member of Parliament (MP).
​
Better Representing Voters' Will
Since MMPR is a proportional system, the share of seats a party wins in Parliament is relative to the share of votes it gets in the Party Vote. This allows locals to vote for whom they think would best represent the local community and vote for whom they would like to see leading the country Federally. This is a system to put big parties and small parties on a level playing field.
​
Team Mimi Lee demands a referendum for elections in Canada to be become the MMPR system. Your vote can be more powerful and truly representing your will.
​
​
Photo by Election Canada