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Electoral System Reform in Canada:
Objectives, Advocacy and Implications for Governance

Canada is witnessing a growing debate about its processes of democratic governance, especially the issues associated with representation and responsiveness. CPRN has examined such questions in the past, with its work on The Society We Want, a project that assessed Canadians values and their expectations of our major public and private institutions. It has also published policy research on key new institutional arrangements such as the social union and the federal role in cities. This new paper by Dr. Leslie Seidle fits squarely within this tradition of attention to governance.

In this paper, he takes a close look at the current debate about the electoral system and its impact on the composition and functioning of the House of Commons and provincial legislatures. The issue of electoral reform has gained prominence in part because it is so important to Canada’s basic constitutional framework.

Leslie Seidle demonstrates that there are still concerns about distortions in political parties’ elected representation relative to their popular vote in the different regions. Beyond that, however, new links are increasingly being drawn between the electoral system and issues such as women’s representation, access to legislative representation for smaller political parties, voter turnout and the power of the executive. Critics of the present system contend that our legislative institutions do not reflect Canada’s highly diverse population as well as they should and that having a wider range of voices heard within them would enhance responsiveness in governance.

An important – and positive – development is that this debate has moved beyond academic circles. A number of organizations promoting electoral reform have emerged in the past few years. This paper includes brief case studies of four such groups, three of which are provincially based – in Quebec, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, a public consultation process addressing the electoral system is in progress or has been promised for the near future. This public dialogue will bring to the fore a range of concerns about how Canadians are governed.

I wish to thank Leslie Seidle for preparing this paper during his recent term as a research associate with CPRN. His keen interest in the health of Canada’s political institutions and citizen involvement are evident in the study. I would also like to thank the Law Commission of Canada for contracting this research with CPRN as part of the Commission’s current project on electoral system reform. Our collaboration with the Law Commission, and especially Nathalie Des Rosiers (President), Bruno Bonneville (Executive Director) and Steven Bittle (Research Officer), allowed both our organizations to make this contribution to public debate on governance in Canada.

Judith Maxwell

October 2002