Federal elections

Overview

Students will see the effects of regional challenges within Canada through their analysis of the results of recent federal elections.

Objectives

• To understand the Canadian system of representative democracy
• To analyse tabular data to reach conclusions on the outcome of election results
• To appreciate the effects of national and regional issues on federal elections

Suggested grade levels and subject areas

Intermediate, Secondary
Politics

Duration

45–60 minutes

Vocabulary

Proportional representation — a system of election in which votes are cast for a rostrum of party candidates and where the percentage of elected party candidates closely approximates the percentage of the total popular vote the party receives.
Referendum — a yes or no vote on a single issue.
Riding — an electoral division represented by one elected member of Parliament.
Unilateral secession — the right to leave a federation without the consent of the other members.

Materials

• Canada Year Book 1999
  
  Print version: copies of text (pp. 469-472) and Table 14.2 "House of Commons Seats" (p. 489)
  CD-ROM version: go to The Economy > The Economy > Introduction, : go to The Nation > The Government > Introduction, Power and Process, The Electorate;
  The Nation >The Government > Tables > "Distribution of House of Commons seats at general elections"
  HTML
• Student worksheet

Classroom instructions

1. Briefly explain the Canadian federal system of government.
2. Emphasize the role of the provinces to reflect the regional interests and regional diversity of Canada.
3. Emphasize the role of the national or federal government to strengthen the unity of Canada and reflect the national interests.
4. Explain the long history of challenge, conflict and compromise that has made up the dynamic of Canadian politics.
5. Explain that while the federal government is concerned primarily with national issues, regional viewpoints on these issues have sometimes affected national elections. While the American federal system has produced a two-party system, Canada has often had a Parliament of more than two parties. Traditionally the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties have been the two contenders for power with a national voter base. Other parties such as the Progressives, the Social Credit and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which became the New Democratic Party have won seats and often had a real claim on power and influence. These parties have sometimes been regional in their interests and their support.
6. Distribute the Student Worksheet.
7. Distribute text and tables (see Materials) and have students look for those sections of the text material that explain the national unity issues facing the federal government in the 1990s.
8. Have students use this material to answer the questions on the worksheet.
9. Discuss the answers to the worksheet to reinforce the students' understanding of the nature of the balance between national and regional interests in Canadian politics.

Evaluation

Mark your students' responses to the questions on the Student worksheet, using the following answers as a guideline:

Canadian Federal Election Results 1980s and 1990s

1. What promise was made to Canada's five major regions by an Act of Parliament in 1996?

• No constitutional change concerning matters that affect them without their unanimous consent.

2. Use the table "House of Commons Seat" to identify Canada's five major regions. What are they?

• Maritimes (Nfld., N.S., P.E.I., N.B.), Quebec, Ontario, Prairies (Man., Sask., Alta.), B.C.

3. According to the text, which region has presented the greatest concern to the federal Parliament? What vote added to that concern?

• Quebec, Oct. 1995 Referendum split the Quebec vote: only 50.6% voted to remain in Canada as it is.

4. How has Parliament responded to that concern?

• A resolution of Parliament recognized Quebec as a distinct society.
• The Government asked the Supreme Court to rule on the ability of Quebec to secede unilaterally.

5. What evidence is presented by the table "House of Commons Seats" to show that the nature of Canadian election results has changed from the 1980s to the 1990s? Describe the change.

• New parties got a number of seats and were elected regionally rather than nationally.

6. Which regions appear to be keeping a national focus according to their voting patterns and which regions appear to be voting for more regional interests in the 1997 election?

• The Maritimes voted the Liberal, NDP and PC parties which can claim to be national in the sense of having support in several regions.
  Ontario voted overwhelmingly for the Liberal party, which claims a national perspective
• Quebec voted for the Bloc Québécois, which has only regional support.
• B.C. and, to some extent, the Prairies voted for the Reform Party, which has fundamental regional support.

7. Using the text section "The Electorate," explain the difference between our current system of electing representatives to Parliament and a proportional representative system.

• We have a "first past the post" or "winner takes all" system in which seats won may not reflect the percentage of votes cast for a party.

8. Explain how our system of election makes the growth of regionalism inside Parliament appear more extreme than it would appear under a proportional representative system.

• The regional differences are not as extreme as they appear and under a proportional system, for example, the Conservative party would have won more seats in more regions and Parliament would have appeared to be more balanced.

Enrichment

If you have Internet access to the Statistics Canada database E-STAT, follow these links to access a table that shows the percentage of votes for each party by province. It reinforces the point made in question 8.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/start.html > Learning resources > Estat > Available Databases > Elections Canada (statistics for the 1997 election – Provincial) > Percentage of Valid Votes by Political Affiliation

Please e-mail comments or examples of how you used this exercise in your class.