48 candidates is no voting panacea

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2023 (855 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG South Centre voters will use a two-column ballot when they vote next Monday in the byelection to fill the seat that’s been vacant since the death of Liberal MP Jim Carr in December. The ballot is larger than usual because there are 48 candidates — a record in Canadian federal election history. The purpose of this, according to the “Longest Ballot Committee” was to call attention to the failure of the first-past-the-post system. But, in reality it’s a stunt that does little to inform voters about the problems with the current electoral system and may actually hurt democracy, rather than improve it.

The Longest Ballot Committee is pursuing electoral reform, but it’s short on details in any substantive way. At an all-candidates’ debate held last week, Kieran Szuchewycz, the official agent for 42 of the Longest Ballot independents (who failed to show up for the debate) said: “It is very difficult to find candidates to participate in a system that they never have a chance of winning. We’re trying to make a point that everyday people need to have a bigger say in the way our democracy works.”

In the meantime, Elections Canada has suggested that the byelection results may be delayed because of the large number of candidates. Also, the braille version of the ballot was not available in time for advance voting, meaning that those with visual impairments — everyday people — can only vote on election day. There were additional training issues as well, as Elections Canada had to train poll workers on how to fold the large ballot to maintain the secrecy of the vote.

One of the independent candidates conceded that perhaps the movement frustrates, rather than encourages, the democratic process. No doubt.

But there’s something to be said about the concern about the electoral system. In the last federal election in 2021, the Conservatives received a higher percentage of the overall vote at 33.7 per cent, while the Liberals got 32.6 per cent, but because of our system, that translated into the Liberals getting a higher share of seats 159 seats to 119 for the Conservatives. The NDP, with 17.8 per cent of the vote, only won 25 seats federally and, because it’s a minority government, helps maintain the Liberals balance of power. The Bloc Québécois had 7.7 per cent of the vote, but because of its concentration in one province, has 33 seats. The Green party elected two party members with just 2.3 per cent of the vote, but the People’s Party of Canada was shut out, despite holding five per cent of the overall vote (only 2.7 per cent fewer than the BQ, which got 33 seats).

Yes, this is unfair.

Conversely according to Fair Vote Canada, using a single-transferable vote system, the seat allocation would change to the Conservatives with 125 seats, the Liberals 121, the NDP at 59, the Bloc with 26 seats, the PPC with six and the Green party in the House with one. It’s still not a perfect match, but it’s much closer to the reality of the votes. Yet, attempts to reform the vote in Canada have failed to come to fruition, including an all-party committee convened in 2016.

The federal NDP, along with the Green Party, have suggested moving away from a partisan committee for investigating reform and convening a citizens’ assembly instead to look at different voting models. From there, a proposal for change can be made that does not come from partisan political actors.

But it’s not like holding a town hall meeting and recording the results. Citizens’ assemblies require engagement and public deliberation. They usually require a non-profit group to help organize. In a large country like Canada on such a complex issue, it will be quite time consuming, considering the large numbers of citizens that will need to be contacted at random initially to reflect the demographics of the population as a whole and then to get them to actively participate.

That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen, but for those who are looking for a quick antidote for the feeling that voting doesn’t count, this isn’t it. Many researchers suggest that changing the electoral system is just one way to increase voter turnout.

Still, it certainly can’t hurt. The last federal election brought a voter turnout of 2021 of 62.5 per cent (yet in Winnipeg South Centre, it was almost 76 per cent). In this byelection, those numbers can be expected to be considerably lower, only because it’s summer and there aren’t as many reminders that an election is on and there is much less front-page news media coverage, notwithstanding the attempts by the Longest Ballot committee.

Shannon Sampert is a communications consultant, freelance editor for Policy Options and former politics and perspectives editor at the Free Press. She teaches part time at the University of Manitoba.

shannon@mediadiva.ca