Voting - Governance & Politics

There is a federal election going on in Canada that inspired this little epistle.

Canada has 343 electoral districts to be represented in the House of Commons.  For purposes of this epistle, I am limiting the number of national parties to 5, Bloc Quebecois, Conservative Party of Canada, Green Party of Canada, Liberal Party of Canada, New Democratic Party of Canada.

But the Bloc is not actually a national party as they run only in Quebec.  They may wish to rethink that as if they pick up members from other provinces they might improve their chances of realising their manifesto. So I am assuming, for the purposes of this, that they have done that and are running candidates in every electoral district.

In fact, I am assuming all the above 5 parties has nominated a candidate for every riding.  Thus we assume there to be a total of 1 715 candidates.

The election is held and the outcome is as close as one party could hope for. All the parties ranked equal in the pre-election polls.  All the parties tallied exactly the same number of votes, except one party.  That party won every electoral district, every seat, by 1 vote.  Thus every vote counted and 343 voters elected all the soon to be sworn in Members of Parliament.

This means that we see the improbable possibility that 20% plus 343 Canadian electors elected 343 Members of Parliament.  

We see the corresponding improbable possibility that 80% less 343 Canadian electors are not represented in the House of Commons to deliver the common good for all Canadians.

How often does this situation or one similar to it play out electoral district by electoral district?  Does this mean that a high percentage of Canadian electors are not represented in the House of Commons, perhaps even well over 50% of us? Does this situation lead us down a treacherous path to lack of faith and trust in our democracy, causing it to rot from the inside?

Just a thought.  Thanks for reading this.

M G Klein April 22, 2025