What Canada’s parliament would look like today under a system of proportional representation

Thanks to wmtc for pointing me to these rather stunning stats published today by Fair Vote Canada, an organization whose mandate is to promote voting reform in Canada:

Conservatives – 38% of the popular vote: 117 seats (not 143)

Liberals – 26% of the popular vote: 81 seats (not 76)

NDP – 18% of the popular vote: 57 seats (not 37)

Bloc – 10% of the popular vote: 28 seats (not 50)

Greens – 7% of the popular vote: 23 seats (not 0)

The Fair Vote press release also includes these facts:

– Green Party: 940,000 voters supporting the Green Party sent no one to

Parliament, setting a new record for the most votes cast for any party that

gained no parliamentary representation. By comparison, 813,000

Conservative voters in Alberta alone were able to elect 27 MPs.

– Prairie Liberals and New Democrats: In the prairie provinces, Conservatives

received roughly twice the vote of the Liberals and NDP, but took seven times

as many seats.

– Urban Conservatives: Similar to the last election, a quarter-million

Conservative voters in Toronto elected no one and neither did Conservative

voters in Montreal.

– New Democrats: The NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but

the voting system gave the Bloc 50 seats, the NDP 37.

Perhaps seeing these figures will inspire Canadians to reexamine how we elect our representatives to Parliament. They certainly tell us a bit more about how Canadians actually voted than do the number of seats each party one.

If you’re interested, Fair Vote has a petition you can sign that calls for the development of “a more proportional voting system” for Canada. You can sign it here.