Transcript Voting and Government

VOTING AND THE CREATION OF
GOVERNMENT
VOTING: RIGHT OR RESPONSIBILITY?
Citizens are guaranteed the right to vote under the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is a very important right that
should be exercised by all citizens.
Democracy only works if people participate. Therefore, it is our duty
to use our democratic right to keep the system working.
The right to vote is what gives us our voice in government and
decision making.
Citizens can exercise their democratic right and participate in
decision making in two ways:
Elections: electing our representatives
Referendums: when the government consults the people on
important issues.
HISTORY OF THE VOTE
Not every Canadian has always had the franchise. For many groups
of people it was a hard-won democratic right. Here is a brief time-line
outlining the right to vote in Canada.
1867 Only men who own property are allowed to vote.
1916 Women in Manitoba become the first in Canada to win the right to vote in
provincial elections.
1917 The War Times Election Act gives wives, sisters, and mothers of
servicemen the right to vote in federal elections.
The right to vote is extended to Aboriginal Canadians in the armed forces.
1918 All adult women win the right to vote in federal elections, except those of
Asian, Inuit, or Status Indian descent.
1934 All Inuit lose the right to vote.
1948 The vote is extended to Japanese Canadians.
1950 Inuit become eligible to vote.
1960 Right to vote extended to Aboriginal Canadians living on reserves.
1968 People with mental disabilities are granted the right to vote.
ELECTORAL DISTRICTS
Canada is too large to use direct democracy so we have use the
representative democracy system, where we elect individuals to
represent us in government.
For the purposes of both federal and provincial representation and
voting, each province is divided into ridings, or constituencies
(electoral districts). Roughly, it is 1 representative per 100,000 voters.
The people who live within the boundaries of a riding are allowed to
elect one representative to government. The candidate who receives
the largest number of votes in each riding becomes its representative.
Each riding equals a seat in the House of Commons (federal) or
Legislative Assembly (provincial).
In a Provincial election, 106 representatives (MPPs) make up the
Ontario Government. The political party with the most seats leads.
In a Federal election, 308 representatives (MPs) make up the
Canadian Government. The political party with the most seats leads.
URBAN vs. RURAL REPRESENTATION
Our Riding (electoral districts) system tries to divide Canada as fairly
as possible for equal representation according to population.
But, Canada is so unequally populated and it is very difficult to keep
the amount of voters and geographical area for each Member of
Parliament equal.
The system tries to give more populated provinces, like Ontario and
Quebec, more representation in government, but even in these
provinces the amount of people who live in cities (urban) is much
higher than those who live in the countryside (rural) making it difficult
to keep it completely equal representation.
The result is that ridings in Rural areas or in less populated
provinces cover more land but have less people, and the Urban
ridings cover less area and have more people.
Some ridings, like in the Northwest Territories or northern Ontario,
have 20, 000 voters per MP, while ridings in cities like Toronto and
Montreal have 150, 000 voters per MP.
SEAT MAJORITY NOT VOTE MAJORITY
Each voter votes for who will represent them in parliament. They
only vote for who their MP (federal) or MPP (provincial) will be not
who the government will be.
The person who gets the most votes in a particular riding becomes
the Member of Parliament and wins a seat in parliament.
The political party with the most seats will form the government.
The leader of the government party becomes the Prime Minister.
It is important to note:
A member can win a riding with less than 50% of the votes.
A party can be the government even though it did not get a
majority of votes nation wide.
Parties have formed governments with as little as 38% of the
vote. (Ontario NDP in 1990)
MAJORITY vs. MINORITY GOVERNMENT
There are two types of Governments that can come out of an
election: Majority or Minority Governments.
A Majority Government occurs when the party who leads the
government has more seats than all the opposition parties combined.
A Minority Government occurs when the party who leads the
government has the most seats but not more than the opposition
parties combined.
A Minority Government is very unstable because the leading party
can be outvoted on any issue and decisions cannot be made. The
leading party must ally itself with the other parties in order to get bills
passed and decisions made.
If the leading party is outvoted in parliament (non-confidence vote),
people lose confidence in the government, parliament dissolves and
a new election is called.
The House of Commons
The Government
Cabinet
P.M.
Hansard
Other
Bloc Quebecois
NDP
Sergeant
at Arms
Speaker
Leader
Shadow Cabinet Official
Conservatives
The Opposition