Electoral Systems in Context: Canada

Par Louis Massicotte

Starting in 1758, elections have been held in various Canadian jurisdictions using first past the post. The same system is now used everywhere in Canada, even though the country ceased a long time ago to be a British colony. Whether constituencies should elect one member or more remained an issue for a long time, but single-member constituencies now prevail for federal, provincial, and territorial elections. For limited periods of time, a few provinces have experienced with alternative voting, the single transferable vote, or the limited vote, but all later reverted to plurality. The debate on the appropriate electoral system remains lively. Many Canadians support proportional representation, and in recent years, mixed-member proportional has emerged as the option most preferred by reformers. However, all attempts in that direction have failed so far, including the process launched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2015.

Chapitre complet, The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems, Avril 2018