CANADA’S ELECTION SYSTEM

First Past the Post System  Currently used in provincial and federal elections  Country is divided into ridings of about 100,000  Political parties choose candidates to represent the party in each riding  Citizens vote for the party by voting for the candidate in their riding  Candidate with the most seats in each riding wins a seat in government  Political Party with the most winning candidates (therefore the most seats) wins the election and forms government

Popular Vote  Popular Vote means the total % of votes by each party is calculated  The Canadian system of FPTP does not calculate the popular vote

Proportional Representation System  A system used by many countries and believed by many people that Canada should adopt  Take all votes for each party as well as the total number of votes across the country  Winning party is the one with the highest % of the popular vote  Seats in government distributed to each party based on the % of popular vote

Election  The process of voting to choose government representatives

Responsible Government  A democratic system of government in which citizens vote for representatives  These representatives make decisions on behalf of the citizens

Representation by Population  The principle that representation should be based proportionally on population

Riding or Constituency  An area that has its own member of parliament

By-election  An election held for a vacant seat or a group of vacant seats, rather than all seats in a general election  Occurs when an elected representative retires, dies, or chooses to leave office before a general election