The Canadian electoral system is based on a

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their Election, democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of t ...

of government modelled on that of the United Kingdom.

Federal parliament

The

Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada () is the Canadian federalism, federal legislature of Canada. The Monarchy of Canada, Crown, along with two chambers: the Senate of Canada, Senate and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, form the Bicameral ...

consists of: *The

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

(represented by the

governor general Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

) *An

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

(the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

), the members of which are appointed by the governor general on the recommendation of the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

(the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

), the members of which are chosen by the citizens of Canada through federal general elections.

Elections Canada Elections Canada () is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering elections in Canada, Canadian federal elections and Referendums in Canada, referendums. History Elections Canada is an agency of the Parliament of Canada, and reports ...

is the

non-partisan Nonpartisanship, also known as nonpartisanism, is a lack of affiliation with a political party and a lack of political bias. While an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., ...

agency responsible for the conduct of

elections in Canada Canada holds elections for legislatures or governments in several jurisdictions: for the Government of Canada, federal (national) government, Provinces and territories of Canada, provincial and territorial governments, and Municipal governmen ...

, including federal elections,

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

s and

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

s. It is headed by the chief electoral officer.

Representation in the House of Commons

Representation in the House of Commons is based on

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

s, also known as constituencies or ridings. Each riding elects one member to the House of Commons, and the number of ridings is established through a formula set out in the

Constitution of Canada The Constitution of Canada () is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various ...

. Riding boundaries are established by independent commissions, and take into account: *

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

links *

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

links New commissions are set up every ten years to make any necessary revisions to existing boundaries, following criteria defined in the '' Electoral Boundaries Readjustment Act''. The process of redefining electoral boundaries is called '' redistribution'', and the results are recorded in a " representation order". The '' Representation Order of 2003'' set the number of ridings at 308. The 2012 redistribution set the number of ridings to 338.

Electoral method

Single-member plurality

Canada's

electoral system An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...

is a "

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

" system, which is formally referred to as a single-member plurality system. The

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...

who receives the most votes in a riding, even if not a majority of the votes, wins a seat in the House of Commons and represents that riding as its member of Parliament (MP). When a party wins a majority of seats, the

asks the party leader to form a government; that leader becomes prime minister. When no party attains a majority, the current prime minister may resign immediately, or choose to stay in office and attempt to win the confidence of a majority of the House. If they resign (either immediately or following a

vote of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

), the governor general will invite the leader of the opposition party most likely to enjoy the confidence of the House to form a government. The largest party by seat count that is not the government or part of a governing coalition becomes the Official Opposition. That party receives more finances and prestige than the other opposition parties. An absolute majority of the votes cast in the last election is not needed to have power, and is rarely achieved. As well, the party in power does not need to have a majority of seats in the House of Commons and under the current multi-party system, quite often does not have that. However to pass bills, the governing party must have support of a majority of MPs. Without majority support, the government falls and a new party is named government or an election has to be held. Only the Liberals and Conservatives (the original Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservatives and modern Conservatives) have formed the federal government in Canada.

Turnout

Voter turnout fell dramatically between 1962 (79%) and 2011 (61.4%). The

Gallagher Index The Gallagher index measures an electoral system's relative Proportional representation, disproportionality between votes received and seats in a legislature. As such, it measures the difference between the percentage of votes each party gets and ...

of disproportionality for Canadian federal elections in that period has ranged from 6.26 to 20.91, in line with some of its comparables — Australia, New Zealand (prior to adoption of MMP in 1992) and United States (presidential electoral college), but significantly higher than many others, for example Belgium, Germany, Ireland, United States (House) and the Scandinavian countries. Voter turnout rose higher in 2015 to 68.5%, and to 66% in 2019.

Timing of election

Historically, the prime minister could ask the governor general to call an election at virtually any time, although one had to be called no later than five years after the return of the writs under section 4 of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

''. In 2007, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Parliament passed an act requiring fixed election dates in Canada every four years. This law does not curtail the power of the governor general to dissolve Parliament at any time, as was done for the 2008 election at the request of Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

. If a government loses a confidence motion, traditionally the prime minister will ask the governor general to call an election. The governor general when approached by the prime minister who has lost a vote of confidence will traditionally call an election. However, it is not assured as some assume. The governor general also has the right to call the leader of the party they think would be most likely to be able to form a government and ask them if they can form the government. This happened in 1926 and is referred to as the King-Byng Affair.

Running for office

Any number of candidates may run for election in an electoral district, but each candidate may only run in one district, either independently or under the banner of a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

. Each party may endorse only one candidate per riding. Candidates who run for election without party affiliation may be designated as

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

or as having no affiliation. A political party is a group of people who together: * Establish a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

and

by-laws A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, generally a legislature or some other ...

* Elect a

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

and other officers * Endorse candidates for election to the House of Commons. To obtain the right to put the party name on the

ballot A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16th cent ...

, under the names of the candidates it endorses, a political party must register with the chief electoral officer. , there were 22 registered political parties operating at the federal level in Canada.

Governing party

After an election, the party with the most elected representatives usually becomes the governing party. The leader of this party is then summoned by the governor-general and sworn in as

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons ...

shortly after the election concludes. The party with the second largest number of MPs is called the

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

. Each of the elected candidates has a seat in the House of Commons, where they debate and vote on draft legislation (called bills) and thus attempt to have an influence on government policy. A party having a majority of the seats can pass what it wants despite any opposition from the group(s) holding the minority of seats, but the imperative to be re-elected and any moral pressure the opposition can impose may temper its legislative agenda

Right to vote

All citizens (18 years and older) have the right to a voice in choosing their parliamentary representatives. Canada's electoral law requires the chief electoral officer to inform the public about the system and about individual rights under that system and to remove obstacles that may make voting difficult for some.

Information to voter

During an election, Elections Canada informs Canadians about their

right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in ...

, how to get on the National Register of Electors and the voter's list, and where and how they can vote. Its public information activities include *News releases. *Advertisements in newspapers and on television and radio, brochures, posters. *A toll-free telephone inquiries center. *A website. *Meetings with community and

ethnocultural An ethnographic group or ethnocultural group is a group that has cultural traits that make it stand out from the larger ethnic group it is a part of. In other words, members of an ethnographic group will also consider themselves to be members of a ...

groups. Between elections, the agency publishes additional background information for the public, keeps its telephone enquiries centre and website open to answer questions, and works with educators to encourage young people to vote when they become eligible (18 years and older).

Voting accommodations

Helping to remove obstacles to voting is an important part of Elections Canada's work. Voters who are not able to vote on polling day can vote at the advance polls. A mail-in special ballot is available for Canadians who are away from their ridings, travelling or temporarily resident overseas. Even Canadians in their own ridings during the election period may use the special ballot if they do not wish to go to a

polling station A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English, British English and Canadian English although a polling place is the building and polling station is the specific ...

. In special cases, electors with a disability may vote at home, in the presence of an election officer. Mobile polls serve voters living in certain institutions, such as nursing homes for people who are elderly or who have a disability. Wherever possible, election officers at polling stations speak both official languages (English and French). In addition, a deputy returning officer can appoint and swear in an interpreter to help communicate with a voter. All votes are made on the same standard heavy paper ballot, which is inserted in a standard cardboard box, furnished by Elections Canada. The ballot and the box are devised to ensure that no one except the elector knows the individual choice that was made.

Voting reform

In 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was in favour of adopting a single-winner

ranked voting Ranked voting is any voting system that uses voters' Ordinal utility, rankings of candidates to choose a single winner or multiple winners. More formally, a ranked vote system depends only on voters' total order, order of preference of the cand ...

system, also referred to as

instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where Sequential loser method, one or more eliminations are used to simulate Runoff (election), ...

or preferential voting. Trudeau promised electoral reform in the 2015 campaign but was unable to get a consensus with other political parties. He said he could not implement electoral reform, saying all parties were not in agreement. Each party had different suggestions, one or more even wanting to retain first-past-the-post. Very few government proposals have approval of every political party represented in the House of Commons.

References

External links

Elections Canada
{{Portal bar, Canada, Politics Elections in Canada Electoral systems by country