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0 pointsthaumasiotes4y ago0 comments

Using a different system to get the same outcome doesn't disprove your parent's claim. That claim is most definitely false though; Canada uses plurality voting.

(For reference, the Canadian House of Commons, according to Wikipedia's footer, divides into 158 Liberals, 119 Conservatives, 33 Québécois, 25 New Democrats, 2 Greens, and 1 Independent.

The Senate divides into 41 Independents, 20 Conservatives, 12 Canadians, 12 Progressives, and 8 non-affiliated, which last category raises interesting questions about the meaning of "Independent".)

It's worth noting that the American two-party system is explicitly protected by many laws that grant special privileges to "the two largest parties" or some similar category; it doesn't rely on the electoral system at all. If other parties got equal treatment before the law, you might see more of them around.

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nikitaga4y ago

Canada has FPTP just like the US, the slight differences in implementation explain the slightly better outcomes, but that's about it. Don't know how that disproves anything.

The last time Canada had anyone other than conservatives or liberals govern the country was more than 100 years ago. [1] What kind of opposition is warming the rest of the parliament seats doesn't matter all that much, because just like in the US, there is no culture of inter-party collaboration in Canada, because there is no need for it: minority governments are rare (thanks to FPTP). This is very much unlike countries with proportional representation, where coalition governments are the norm, because when stupid voting mechanics are not protecting the duopoly, no single party is ever good enough to capture more than half of the vote.

The senate in Canada isn't even elected, senators are appointed by the Prime Minister. And it doesn't have the same prominent role as the US senate. So I've no idea what are you trying to say here.

FPTP favors the two biggest parties by a huge margin. It's damn math, it's been proven decades ago. Look it up.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_federal_gener...

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