Stephen Harper didn’t receive the majority of Canadian votes his party won the most seats
Latest news, World news Wednesday, June 29th, 2011First-past-the-post (abbreviated FPTP or FPP) voting refers to an election won by the candidate(s) with the most party MPs being elected. The winning candidate does not always receive an absolute majority of all votes cast. Stephen Harper benefited the most from FPTP, winning a majority government with only 39.6% of the vote – truly a minority of votes cast. That means 60.4% of the Canadian voters (a true majority) voted against Harper. Because of this undemocratic flaw Harper now assumes he has the authority of the Canadian people to make any decision, make any treaty, make any deal or make any law without the consent of people of Canada. However, this is not the case as Stephen Harper didn’t receive the majority of votes his party received the higher number of elected MPs.
Although similar in design, FPTP does not relate solely to plurality voting. This system of voting is seriously flawed as the candidate with the most votes gets elected and the total number of elected candidates from the same political party decides whether or not their leader will become Prime Minister of Canada. In Canada, the party which wins the most seats in a general election forms the government. If the party wins more than half of the seats in the House of Commons or legislative assembly, then the party forms a majority government. This flaw in FPTP voting gave Stephen Harper a majority government because more Conservative MPs were elected than any other party MPs.
Millions of Canadians lost their vote as a direct result of this flawed system of voting. Large ridings with the majority of people like Toronto or Montreal have no voice even though they have the most voters. Their votes are wasted even before they are cast because their majority vote will have no impact on the final result. Smaller ridings with the minority of people gave Stephen Harper a disproportional majority government. How?
Because FPTP permits a high level of wasted vote, an election under FPTP is deliberately designed to unfairly increase the number of seats won by one party at the expense of another. Suppose that the governing party, the Conservatives, wishes to reduce the seats that will be won by the opposition party Liberals in an election. It creates a number of constituencies in each of which the Liberals has an overwhelming majority of votes. The Liberals will win these seats, but a large number of its voters will waste their votes. Then the rest of the constituencies are designed with small majorities for the Conservatives. Few of the Conservatives’ votes are wasted, and the Conservatives will win a large number of seats by small margins. As a result, the Liberals’ seats have cost it more votes than the Conservatives’ seats.
The election results for May 2, 2011 clearly shows Canadians that Stephen Harper did in fact receive another minority vote, not the majority he claims to have been given. Harper received only 39.6% of the votes. 60.4% of the Canadian voters (a true majority) voted against Harper. In Canada every vote truly doesn’t count. Harper manipulated the results of the vote in order to claim a majority government. The definition of rig is “to manipulate dishonestly for personal gain“.
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