For immediate release
May 2, 2011

"With opinion polls in disarray, advance polls at record levels, vote mobs sweeping the nation's campuses, and an orange wave on the horizon, the results of today's election are likely to put us into unexplored territory," says Bronwen Bruch, President of Fair Vote Canada. "The Governor General may be called upon to sort it all out."

With this in mind, Canada's national citizens' movement for fair voting reform has clarified some misunderstandings on the operation of our parliamentary democracy (with thanks to Helen Forsey):

Myth #1: Coalitions are evil and illegitimate.
Coalitions are the normal form of government in most developed countries. The other major "Westminster" democracies, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, and New Zealand, are all currently governed by coalitions.

Myth #2: Canadians elect the prime minister.
Although almost all Canadians vote on the basis of which party or leader they support, we actually get to vote only for our local Member of Parliament. Parliament decides which party or coalition of parties gets to form the government, and who gets to be Prime Minister.

Myth #3: The party that wins the most seats necessarily forms the government.
The Government must have and maintain the confidence of Parliament. Although Parliament is dissolved when an election is called, the Cabinet, formally known as "the Governor General in Council", remains in place throughout the election period. After an election, the previous Government gets to stay in power until they either resign or lose a vote of confidence in the House of Commons. Then it is the job of the Governor General to decide which party or group of parties is likely to have the confidence of Parliament, and ask them to form a government.

Myth #4: Defeating a government on a confidence motion forces a fresh election.
Not necessarily. If a recently elected House votes to defeat a government, the Governor General may call on another party to form a government and seek the confidence of the House.

Myth #5: It is an illegitimate “seizure of power” if the opposition accepts the Governor General’s invitation to replace a government that has lost the confidence of the House.
Not true. In fact, the opposition has what amounts to a constitutional duty to try to form a viable government with the recently elected Parliament, with no need for a repeat election.

"In a multi-party system such as ours," adds Fair Vote Canada Executive Director Wayne Smith, "it is very rare that one party receives a majority of the votes in any election. Under our current system, a Single party frequently wins a majority of the seats in the House of Commons with 40% of the votes or less. Since the winner-take-all nature of the system discourages cooperation, it is common for the largest party to rule as a minority government when no party has a majority of seats. Although minority governments in Canada have frequently been productive, this arrangement is inherently unstable because the voting system creates such a strong incentive to force another election to try to get a phony majority.

"Most developed countries have proportional voting systems—a party that gets 40% of the votes wins 40% of the seats, not 60%. This means parties must share power and cooperate in order to govern. The normal process after an election is for the parties to sit down together for several weeks and negotiate which parties will form the government coalition, who will be in the Cabinet, and what will be the government's agenda going forward. This is then written up in the form of a contract and signed by the parties. This public document then forms the basis on which the parties can be held accountable by the public through the instrument of a fair voting system."

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Contact:
Wayne Smith
416-407-7009
Wayne.Smith@FairVote.Ca