The whole idea behind independent candidates is the hope that their inclusion might improve the accountability of parliamentarians to the voters. The bill doesn’t do that.
The wave of protests across Canada against vaccine mandates are signs of growing tensions that the federal government doesn’t represent the views of many people. It’s time for election reform.
The new law makes it illegal for ‘foreign’ persons or entities to fundraise or directly spend on electioneering, or to authorise electoral material.
Our first-past-the-post electoral system works poorly when there are lots of three-way races and even some four-way races. Seats can be won with far less than a majority, meaning it’s time to revisit electoral reform.
Pietro Mattia/Unsplash
The March elections in the Netherlands, and the fact that a government still hasn’t been formed, illustrate both the benefits and problems with proportional representation.
Electoral reforms are important before Nigerians go to the polls in 2023
Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images
New research examines how recent federal elections would have been affected if optional preferential voting had been used. The results were not favourable to Labor.
ANC campaigners at voting station in November 2020.
Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The debate about the U.S. Electoral College pits those who think the president should be chosen via popular vote versus those who believe the interests of small and large states must be balanced.
A sign keeping campaigners at a distance in the New Hampshire presidential primary election at the Town Hall in Chichester, New Hampshire, Feb. 9, 2016.
Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Laws that have long kept campaigners away from voters at polling places may not work in a world where a T-shirt symbol can be interpreted as campaigning.
Failure to campaign due to COVID-19 has fuelled calls to synchronise polls.
EFE-EPA
The success of Malawi’s democratic dispensation will be measured on the extent to which it delivers public goods – opportunities, development, accountability – for the people.
To boost inclusivity among its ranks, the House of Commons needs parliamentary reform of its voting procedures to allow electronic online voting, or e-voting, for its members.
Members of the Indigenous Amis tribe in traditional costumes participate in the yearly harvest festival in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in September 2018.
(Shutterstock)
For Indigenous voters in Taiwan, the current system prevents many of them from having an impact on the election of representatives where they live.
The ‘United We Roll’ convoy of semi-trucks travels the highway near Red Deer, Alta., in February 2019 en route to Ottawa to protest what it called a lack of support for the energy sector and stalled pipelines.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Determining whether Canadians are gaining or losing confidence in democracy depends in part on which region one is examining. Contrasting trends in Alberta and Québec provide clues.
Other voting systems are available.
tkemot/Shutterstock
To justify a push towards requiring ID to vote, some paint a picture of chaos and deception that is very far from reality.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
arrive at the Commonwealth Heads of Government 2018 meeting in Windsor, England, in April 2018. New Zealand moved from the first-past-the-post electoral system in 1993 to a system that helped put Ardern in power.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Unlike Canada’s newly elected House of Commons, New Zealand’s parliament reflects the will of voters. So do other proportional representation systems. Canada has plenty of choice.
ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney and McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University