Elections in Canada

Every citizen of Canada has a right to vote in an election of members of the House of
Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.
section 3 of CA 1982
Canadas electoral system:
According to the preamble to CA 1867, Canada should have an electoral system
similar to the UK, thus Canada has a single-member plurality (SMP) system
a system in which the country is divided into a number of electoral districts (socalled ridings or constituencies), and each of these has one representative, who
is voted in by a plurality of votes, rather than majority (the person with the
most votes, not the person with the majority of all votes together a winning
candidate may have less than 50% of all votes and win, having the most votes
regardless), also called first-past-the-post
Voting in Canada:

The governor general dissolves the Parliament and calls new elections, usually
by the Prime Ministers suggestion
Although each parliament has 5 years to rule, it rarely does so, as elections tend
to take place after 4 years of a given parliament
General (nationwide) elections follow immediately after the governor general
dissolves Parliament
A by-election is held to fill a seat mid-way through a parliament in the case of
an MPs death or resignation
The Chief Electoral Officer is a politically neutral citizen who administers the
general elections and appoints a Returning Officer for each of the 282 districts
in Canada, who then in turn appoints a deputy returning officer, poll clerks,
and enumerators
Electoral districts are divided into polls (each has approx. 250 voters), each of
which is run by the poll clerks and two enumerators
The enumerators prepare the official voting list for each poll (comprised of all
citizens over the age of 18)
The Chief Electoral Officer doesnt have the right to vote, the returning officers
are allowed to vote only if there is a tie result
Preliminary voters lists must be ready 26 days prior to the election
Those who arent on the list have 10 days to register
Candidates who want to run for a position must present the returning officer with
official nomination papers signed by 100 eligible voters from a given
constituency and $1000 that cover a portion of their campaign (returned if the
candidate receives at least 15% of the vote)
Elections are generally held on the third Monday in October in the fourth
calendar year after the previous poll
The polls are open for 12h in each of the time zones (results are only made
public after all the polls are closed)
Each party is permitted to have 2 scrutineers at the poll to observe the process
and the deputy returning officer counts the votes in their presence at the end of

the day (this unofficial result hits the media first), after which the votes are
sealed and sent to the returning officer for an official count
The Parliament of Canada has two chambers: The House of Commons has 338
members, elected for a maximum five-year term in single-seat constituencies, and the
Senate has 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime
minister. Senators are given permanent terms (up to age 75) and thus often serve
much longer than the prime minister who was primarily responsible for their
appointment.

Members of Parliament are directly accountable to Canadians as they must be

periodically re-elected in order to remain in office
The Prime Minister and Cabinet are accountable indirectly as they must maintain
the confidence of the House of Commons (which has been elected directly)
Thus elections to the House of Commons ensure that the will of the people is
represented

Microcosm theory of representation the prime minister is expected to form a

cabinet that will represent the countrys diversity in terms of gender, race, religion,
ethnicity, language, allowing for a full representation of society (e.g. if 50% of society is
female, 50% of the cabinet should also be female). Similarly with the Supreme Court of
Canada.
Distribution of seats in the House of Commons minimum number (allocated number):
Atlantic Canada 32
Prince Ed Island 4
Nova Scotia 11
New Brunswick 10
Newfoundland & Labrador 7
Central Canada 170 (199)
Ontario 95 (121)
Quebec 75 (78)
Western Canada 77 (104)
Manitoba 14
Saskatchewan 14
Alberta 21 (34)
British Colombia 28 (42)
Northern Can 3
North West Territories 1
Nunavut 1
Yukon 1
Total: 282 (338)