1. Lesson 2: Political Parties and Local Candidates

2. What is a political party? A political party is an organized group of people who share similar political beliefs and goals. Parties are made up of ‘members’ from the public. Party members work together to achieve power through an election and try to accomplish their goals. Each party also selects a leader, usually through a leadership contest.

3. Political Parties in NL Paul Davis Dwight Ball Earle McCurdy

4. What is a party platform? A party platform explains the party’s ideas to deal with major issues and to make improvements. While all the political parties may agree that education is important, they may have different ideas about how to improve the system or what exactly needs to change. During elections, parties share their platform through announcements, advertising and events, and try to attract support from voters.

5. What is an electoral district? An electoral district is a geographical area represented by an elected official, also known as a riding or constituency. The size of an electoral district is determined by population and geographical features. Urban ridings are small and heavily populated, rural ridings are large and sparse.

6. What is an MHA? At the provincial level in Newfoundland and Labrador, the elected official is called a Member of the House of Assembly (MHA). MHAs represent the needs and interests of their constituents (people living in their electoral district) and address issues at the local level. Newfoundland and Labrador will be electing 40 MHAs in the current provincial election.

7. What is an electoral system? An electoral system is the way that citizens’ choices, expressed as votes, are translated into legislative seats. All electoral systems have three basic elements: –District magnitude: the number of members elected per electoral district –Ballot type: the way in which choices are presented to voters –Electoral formula: the method for determining which candidate gets elected

8. What is our electoral system? Newfoundland and Labrador uses a system called First-Past- The-Post (or Single-Member Plurality). Citizens elect one member per electoral district. Citizens can only choose one candidate on the ballot. The winning candidate must receive at least one more vote than any other candidate. This is also known as plurality.

9. How does First-Past-The-Post work? An example of FPTP, in an electoral district with 100 ballots cast. CANDIDATENUMBER OF VOTES Lisa (Banana Party) 40 Josh (Apple Party) 15 Nancy (Pear Party) 11 Norman (Independent) 34 Lisa wins because she has the most votes, even though most voters chose someone else (60 voters).

10. How does someone run for election? A person running for election is called a candidate. Any person who wants to run in the provincial election must file papers with Elections NL by the nomination deadline (Friday, November 20 th ). Political parties select candidates to run for their party in electoral districts across the province. Candidates can also run as an independent or without any affiliation to a party. Elections NL posts the names of the candidates on their website (www.elections.gov.nl.ca)

11. Final Thoughts How should you evaluate candidates? What characteristics or qualifications do you expect from your MHA? Which local issues are important to you?