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Rebooting Canadian Democracy: More Than Just Electoral Reform Thomas S 15 Two voters taking a selfie on Parliament Hill. They are direct stakeholders in the democratic reform debate, which is much bigger than electoral reform. iStock photo Rebooting Canadian Democracy: More Than Just Electoral Reform Thomas S. Axworthy The fact that Canada is not a democracy in crisis raises anada is one of the world’s most successful liberal democ- the question of electoral reform: “If it ain’t broke, why fix C racies: there is no crisis in dem- it?” But, as Liberal Party elder statesman and Massey ocratic practice or outcomes in this College Public Policy Chair Tom Axworthy writes, this country. is also a country of energetic, cyclical consensus build- Every international comparison puts Canada in the top rank in governance, ing on policy questions that matter. And there’s more election outcomes and human develop- to democratic reform than electoral reform. This piece ment achievement. The World Bank, for example, sponsors a worldwide is adapted from Axworthy’s presentation to the Special governance indicators project. In 2014, Committee on Electoral Reform. Canada had a 96 per cent rating in the 16 category of voice and accountability, When Parliament is sitting, the government is 91 per cent in political stability, 95 accountable to the legislature on a daily basis and per cent in government effectiveness, 98 per cent in regulatory quality, 93 its record will eventually be scrutinized and judged by the per cent in the rule of law, and 94 per people at election time. cent in control of corruption. On electoral systems, the Electoral In- tegrity Project rated Canada in 2015 as “very high” at 75 per cent in elec- eminent democratic institution as, Six pillars contribute to election ar- toral integrity overall, holding top “The People’s House of Commons.” chitecture: the franchise, voter reg- place among those employing ma- He is right to, especially in a discus- istration, electoral districting, cam- joritarian electoral rule. This combi- sion of electoral systems to remind paign finance, election management nation of high achieving governance us that “representative government and the electoral system. Since the and political practice has certainly is about government as much as it is first representative assembly in Nova contributed to the most important about representation.” The electoral Scotia in 1758, Canada’s election success of all, the expansion of hu- system should not be discussed in history has been one of constant man development and choice. Here isolation: it is the system that pro- innovation, usually inspired by the too, for many decades, Canada has duces the House of Commons, which positive workings of federalism since been at the top of the list in the Unit- in turn votes confidence in a party most of the reforms were initiated in ed Nations Human Development In- (or parties, if a coalition) to formu- the provinces before being adopted dex, ranked first in 1985, second in late a government. Each type of elec- by Ottawa. Think of Canada’s first 1995, and, in 2015, ranked 9th out of toral system—majoritarian, mixed, election in 1867: voting was pub- 183 countries. or proportional representation—has lic, staggered over several months a different set of incentives for our to give the government party an ad- Each type of parties to assess and is likely to pro- vantage, with a restricted franchise duce different outcomes. Incentives of about 15 per cent of the popula- electoral system— for better or fairer representation, for tion made up of white, male proper- majoritarian, mixed, or example, may produce equal disin- ty holders. Today, 70 per cent of the proportional representation— centives for the formation of effective population is entitled to vote (only has a different set of governments. By every international those under 18 years of age and non- standard of governance and electoral citizens cannot participate). About incentives for our parties to integrity, Canada already has a well- 3.5 million people lived in Canada assess and is likely to produce performing political system. So the in 1867, today the population is 10 different outcomes. key questions that must be asked are: times that number and we attract a What, exactly, is the problem that quarter of a million immigrants an- electoral reform is trying to fix? Will nually from all over the world. Con- the solution to one type of problem federation Canada was 80 per cent create problems in other dimensions rural; we are now 80 per cent urban Our success is due, in large part, to and, if so, how do you weigh the with one-third of our population in the fact that we are a parliamentary trade-offs? And, lastly, can the prob- the three cities of Toronto, Montreal democracy. The Westminster system, lem that needs fixing be ameliorated and Vancouver alone. when it works right (and in Canada in some other way or is it only elec- it has mostly worked right) concen- toral reform that can do the job? s Canada has changed, our trates power in the executive so that election architecture has things can get done while ensuring o, Canada has a governance A adapted, too. In 1758, Nova that those holding this power are ac- and electoral system that works Scotia became the first colony with a countable for its use. When Parlia- S for us and is admired around the representative assembly and in 1848 ment is sitting, the government is world, but it has taken 300 years to the first to achieve responsible gov- accountable to the legislature on a build these institutions with change ernment with the executive formed daily basis and its record will even- and adaptation occurring on a regu- from—and accountable to—a ma- tually be scrutinized and judged by lar basis. With every generation since jority of the elected members of the the people at election time. Parlia- our founding, Canadians have identi- assembly. In 1855, New Brunswick ment represents and speaks on be- fied an electoral problem that needs introduced the secret ballot subse- half of all Canadians in making and fixing. So it is entirely appropriate quently adopted by Canada in 1874 questioning governments. Ryerson that, as we begin the 21st century, along with single-day voting. In University political scientist David this generation of Canadian leaders is 1867, Canada was created and fed- E. Smith rightly describes our pre- initiating a serious review. eralism established. In 1916, Mani- Policy 17 toba became the first province to give votes to women over 21, followed by Canada in 1918. Over time, the fran- The Alphabet Soup of Electoral Reform chise was expanded with property David Mitchell restrictions abolished in 1920, Asian Canadians given the vote in 1948, he special parliamentary committee appointed to study and Inuit in 1953 and Status Indians liv- T recommend changes to our system of voting has heard from diverse experts and academics about an interesting range of possible voting ing on reserves in 1960. In 1970, systems. These systems are often described by an assortment of acronyms the voting age for Canadian citizens unfathomable to the uninitiated. Here’s our Policy primer, beginning with was lowered from 21 to 18. In 1920, the status quo: the Dominion Election Act created FPTP (first-past-the-post): This is Canada’s current electoral system and has the Office of an Independent Chief been used in federal elections since Confederation. It’s also sometimes referred Electoral Officer and from this point to as an SMP (single member plurality) system. The provinces and territories forward, the federal franchise was es- are divided into separate electoral districts and each is represented by a tablished by federal, not provincial member of Parliament. The successful candidate in an election is the individual law. In 1956, Manitoba created an who wins the highest number of votes in each electoral district, or riding. independent boundaries commission Proportional Representation (PR): A system of parliamentary to do away with the practice of gerry- representation in which the number of seats each party has in the House of mandering, and in 1964 the national Commons is in proportion to its share of the popular vote. There are several Parliament followed suit by adopting types of proportional representation voting systems. the Electoral Boundaries Readjust- Party List PR (List Proportional Representation), open or closed. Both ment Act to create independent elec- involve parties drawing up a list of candidates for each constituency. In toral boundary commissions in every open-list PR, voters choose preferred candidates from the list of the party for province following each decennial which they wish to vote. In closed-list PR systems, the party ranks the names census. In 1977, Quebec led the way on their list and voters cast their ballots for a party, not a specific candidate. in banning of corporate and union Mixed member majority (MMM). One example of party list PR. Voters donations to parties, a reform not in single-member electoral districts cast two votes: one for a candidate adopted federally until the 2006 Fed- to represent them and one for a party. These two votes are independent eral Accountability Act. In 1968, the of one another and the party seats don’t necessarily serve to correct any first televised leaders’ debate was pro- disproportionate result of the elected candidates. duced by a consortium of the main Mixed member proportional (MMP): In which the number of FPTP seats television networks, with disputes remains, supplemented by a number of PR seats per province based on about the criteria for inclusion a pe- parties’ share of the popular vote in each province.
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