Around the world, there are different voting systems for electing Members of Parliament. In Canada, since Confederation, we have used one of the most, if not the most, democratic systems in the world, called First Past the Post.

Prime Minister Trudeau has said he wants to change that. Whenever any province or country decides to change how they elect their Members of Parliament, they go to the people through what we call a referendum. This means you have a vote, and therefore a say. Mr. Trudeau has established a committee of 12 parliamentarians. They alone will make recommendation to him, and he will make the decision.

As Canadians, we need to fully understand that the electoral process, in how we elect our Members of Parliament, is the responsibility of the people, not the ownership of Parliamentarians. Therefore, it is imperative that you, the voter, have a say if there is to be a change to how Canadians elect their Members of Parliament – and we do that through a referendum.

Below is a brief outline of what the Library of Parliament had provided regarding the three main Electoral System divisions.

With a Majority Electoral System, the winning candidate is the individual who garners the most votes in an electoral district — First Past the Post (currently in use in Canada), Alternative Vote, and Two-Round.

Proportional Representation Systems seek to match a political party’s vote share more closely with its seat allocation in the legislature. Voters elect more than one representative per constituency or geographic area. Types of this system are classified as List Proportional Representation (which breaks down in two main forms – Closed-List and Open-List), Single Transferrable Vote. the minimum number of votes that must be garnered is based on the number of the seats to be filled (also called the “vote quota”), and Single Non-Transferable Vote.

As you might guess from its name, Mixed Electoral Systems combine elements of a majority system with proportional representation. Citizens in a constituency cast two votes: one to directly elect an individual member to serve as their representative, and a second for a party or parties to fill seats in the legislature allocated according to the proportion of the vote share they receive. There are two groupings under this heading: Mixed Member Majority and Mixed Member Proportional.

For more details and to see the Library of Parliament’s full copy of the report and further analysis, CLICK HERE.