Democracy and Voting Systems Teacher Guide and Additional Slides By Fair Vote Canada Volunteers

Lesson Plan and Presentation:

This Guide:

Downloads: Available from the Democracy Action Network Community Lesson Plan Classroom Presentation Slides This presentation with extra slides

Canada’s Democratic Institutions Electoral system: translates votes into power

A Mock Vote This is an exercise for exploring how different voting systems work. Since we’re talking about democracy, we need to pick the topic for our election. Follow the instructions and have fun!

Shortened version of the mock vote The chocolate bar vote……

Voting Systems: FPTP Topics:

Possible Topic Choices

Vote by show of hands

And the winning topic is… The topic most of the students voted for. No majority was needed. This is called “winner take all” or “first past the post.”

Voting Materials Ballots Chalk or white board

Ballot Box

Candidates soft rock disco hip hop Indie rock

Candidates Aero Kitkat Coffee Crisp Smarties

Voting Results Bar Votes Percent Kit Kat 7 votes23% Smarties 3 votes10% Aero 8 votes27% Coffee Crisp12 votes40%

And the winning candidate is…

Satisfaction level? 40% 23%

Is there a better way so everyone is satisfied?

Voting System: First Past the Post (FPTP) Why it's called FPTP In horse racing the horse first past the post wins the race and the prize. In FPTP elections there is one winner. The other candidates get nothing. That’s why FPTP is called a winner take all system.

Voting Systems: FPTP First Past the Post is also called a winner take all system. The candidate with the most votes, is elected. The winning candidate does not have to have the majority of the votes to win.

Voting Systems: FPTP In Canada, all elections, federal and provincial use the FPTP system. Canada did not choose to use FPTP. It was inherited from the days of the British Empire. FPTP used mostly in the United Kingdom and former British colonies was only intended to work in a 2 party system. Canada now has more parties.

First Past the Post is also called Single Member, Plurality system. Single Member means that in each electoral division (called ridings) there can only be one winner representing the entire constituency. Plurality means that the person with the most votes wins, no matter what percentage of people voted for him or her. The winner does not need a majority of votes. Voting Systems: FPTP

How did your mock vote work out? Did the winner have a majority of votes? Or did most voters choose a loser?

What? I have to listen to disco all night!!!

Will I bother to vote?

Voting Systems: Democratic countries - two major voting systems: winner-take-all (FPTP) and proportional representation.(PR). Proportional systems – referred to as “proportional representation” or PR. 90 democratic nations use some form of PR for their electoral system.

Proportional Representation IS BASED ON A VERY SIMPLE PRINCIPLE: The percentage of seats a party earns in government is equal to the percentage of people who voted for that party. If Party A gets 30% of votes, they get 30% of the seats in the government. If Party B gets 10% of votes, they get 10% of the seats, etc..

Voting Systems:

House of Commons Under PR, these seats would be filled according to the percentage of voters who voted for each party.

PR and your mock vote Under a PR system you would play four different kinds of music in proportion to the choices of the voters.

Politics is about values

Electoral systems can change New Zealand changed to mixed member proportional representation (MMP) after many years of first-past-the-post

Might Canada want to change?

FPTP in Canada Canada is divided into 308 (338 in Sept 2013) federal ridings. In each riding, an election is conducted on a FPTP basis. The candidate with the most votes in that riding gets a seat in Parliament. The party with the most seats usually forms the government and the leader of that party is the Prime Minister. If a party wins over half of the seats in Parliament, there will be a “majority” government.

Issues with Canadian elections Low voter turn-out/voter apathy Young people don’t vote Strategic/tactical voting vs. sincere voting Tight races and safe seats Negative campaigns and questionable tactics

I probably won’t bother to vote.

Strategic voting “Yuck! I guess I’ll have to vote for this one because the candidate I really like has no chance of winning the seat.”

“Swing” ridings Get lots of attention. Promises are made. Events are held during an election.

Safe Seats Party leader: “This riding always votes for my party so I don’t have to campaign there. I’ll spend more money and time in a tight-race riding, like Etobicoke Centre.”

Close race: Etobicoke Centre 2011 Conservatives: 21,661 Liberals: 21,635

The Conservatives had 26 votes more than the Liberals.

What might they be saying? What would you say if your vote didn’t count? What if you had to eat the chocolate bar you didn’t like or the only music available made you feel very sad?

What should the electoral system do? Translate votes into seats to reflect the way people voted. For example, 40% of the votes 40% of the seats 25% of the votes25 % of the seats

Actual election results What actually happens when Canada votes? Are the results fair?

Voting Results of the 2011 General Election Party # of Votes% of Votes Conservative Party of Canada5,832,40140% New Democratic Party4,508,47431% Liberal Party of Canada2,783,17519% Bloc Quebecois889,7886% Green Party576,2214% Actual Canadian Election Results No Party Receives a Majority of Votes

Conservative Majority By 12 Seats Party # of Seats% of Seats Conservative Party of Canada16654% New Democratic Party10333% Liberal Party of Canada3411% Bloc Quebecois41%1% Green Party1Less than 1% Seats/Ridings Won 2011 General Election Actual Canadian Election Results

Federal election results 2011 Not Proportional ≠ Not Fair

Many ridings, many plurality races

Evaluating results FPTP gives us a “distorted” result because it does not reflect how Canadians voted.

Real Canadian Election Results Quebec Provincial Election, 1998 The wrong result? Party # of Seats% of Seats% of Vote Parti Quebecois Liberal Party Action-Democratique Other001.77

Real Canadian Election Results The Bloc and the Greens 2008 Are all votes equal? 948,000 votes = 0 seats 1.3 million votes = 49 seats

Real Canadian Election Results The New Brunswick Liberal Sweep, 1987 The missing opposition! Party # of Seats% of Seats% of Vote Liberal Party Progressive Conservative NDP Independent000.47

Why might this be a problem? There’s no one to criticize the government. Many elections result in the same party being elected. No opportunity for other parties to get experience in Parliament.

Why might this be a problem? ….. continued Many voices and points of view are not heard. Almost 40% of the population, who didn’t vote Liberal, had no voice.

DID YOUR VOTE COUNT?

Real Canadian Election Results Party # of Seats% of Seats% of Vote Liberal Party of Canada Bloc Quebecois Reform Party New Democratic Party Progressive Conservative Other The 35 th General Election, 1993

2011 Election Results FPTP PR Majority Threshold (155 seats) Majority Threshold (155 seats)

Observations One party wins a disproportionate number of seats under FPTP PR seems to “even things out.” PR gives more power to smaller parties to affect change in parliament.

Comparing FPTP & PR Distribution of seats based on the 2011 Federal Election results, under FPTP and PR Party FPTPPR Conservative Party of Canada New Democratic Party10395 Liberal Party of Canada3459 Bloc Quebecois419 Green Party113

Observations The smaller parties gain more seats under PR. The dominant party loses members.

Coalition government Advantages? Disadvantages?

Some possible answers It would take more talking and negotiating to create effective policies. More ideas would be heard. Policies may tend to be more moderate. Policies may not change so drastically from government to government.

Find out more about PR Visit the Fair Vote Canada website (fairvote.ca) or Facebook page. Learn about different types of PR systems. When you start voting, ask candidates about PR. It’s your country. Canada’s future belongs to you.

Downloads: Available from the Democracy Action Network Community Lesson Plan (14 pages) Classroom Presentation PowerPoint Slides (19)Classroom Presentation PowerPoint Slides PowerPoint of this Presentation (65) If you have comments or questions you can post them in the Democracy Action Network Community