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In the midst of a captivating US election and a global financial meltdown, Canada’s third general election in four years struggled to make international press headlines and the victory on October 16th for incumbent Conservatives led by Stephen Harper went almost entirely unnoticed. However, this election deserves our attention as an example of an ailing electoral system and a display of first-past-the-post (FPP) politics at its worst.

Three general elections have been held in Canada over the last four years, resulting from votes of ‘no confidence’ during acute political deadlocks that have plagued four consecutive minority governments. Last month’s election was called by Prime Minister Harper in an effort to gain a majority government off the back of the Liberals’ shaky response to the economic crisis. The Conservatives gained 19 seats, but continue to rule in a minority, falling 13 seats short of the required 155.

Perusing Facebook in the build-up to the election, a site guaranteed to give an indication of the tack of young voters at any rate, I came across a group entitled the ‘Anti-Harper Vote Swap Campaign.’ This 15,000-strong group described its goals as twofold: preventing the Conservative incumbent seizing victory and avoiding ‘wasted’ votes through vote swapping. Unlike simple tactical voting, which Canadians have been doing for years, vote swapping is intended to allow voters to trade their votes with people in a constituency where their chosen party (there are five in Canada) stands a chance of beating the favorite. It is an organized effort by those disillusioned with the system to not only resist the heavyweights trampling on their votes, but also to have their particular choice of party reflected.

Vote swapping, the group however contends, “is nothing but a band-aid solution for the massive wound” that is the FPP system. Upon examining the outcomes of both the 2006 and 2008 election, it becomes apparent just how much representative democracy suffers in Canada’s electoral system. In both 2006 and this election, Conservatives entered government with between only 36% and 37% of the popular vote. This year, one party, separatists Le Bloc Quebecois, gained 40 seats with only 10% of the popular vote. The three left of centre parties (Liberals, NDP and Green) received a total of 53% of the vote between them and ended up with just 111 seats combined.

The arguments against FPP elections are familiar, and re-emerge on a regular basis in British election season, only to swiftly go into hibernation once the system produces desired results for the new government. But in Europe at least, it has always appeared to me as a fair-trade: you are the recipient of either the British-style parliamentary system, in which your vote may not be heard, but your government will have a clear winner and rule with an effective majority, or German-style proportional representation, in which your particular place on the political compass will be represented in Parliament, but with all that stagnant centrism, good luck getting any meaningful legislation passed. Canada, it appears, has the worst of both worlds. Voters are forced to swap votes in an effort to be heard, and still end up with impotent governments, compromise politics, and stalemates crippling enough to require a new election every year.

Canada’s electoral system is part and parcel of what defines Canada: the political product of fusion food, multiculturalism, bilingualism and cultural malleability is a heady mix of FPP voting, multiple parties, single-member constituencies and parliamentary government. Unlike noodle burritos or Toronto’s melting pot, however, the mixture of political systems doesn’t gel. The combination of multiple parties and FPP serves to create a farce of democracy and the electoral process. The lack of representation suffered by the three leftist parties last month is tolerated in a two-party system. But when five parties are in the running, FPP creates not only unfairness but ineffectiveness. This has also created a record low turnout of 59.1% at this election, surely a signal of voters’ increasing disillusionment in voting for an impotent and unrepresentative government. Apparently four elections and four minority governments have not been enough to make the voices of those Facebook reformists heard.

Despite its vastness, Canada is akin to Belgium in the amount of international political interest it draws, but in election season, it is worth glancing north of the Earth’s political focus, for it offers an insightful example of the democratic electoral process at its worst, of the baffling products of fusion politics and the pressing need for reform.

Eimear O'Casey graduated from the University of Edinburgh with MA Honours in History (1st Class). She spent her third year on exchange at McGill University, Canada. Eimear will join the editorial team at Atlantic-community.org in December.