Canadian Federal Election 42: Misconceptions and Truths about Canada's system of government and how elections work

Hello voters and soon to be voters! It's one week until election day, and to help everyone make an informed decision I will be writing a series of blog posts about the candidates and parties and other things related to Election 42! To start off, here are some common (and just invented) misconceptions about how our system of government works. A lot of people seem to be in the dark when it comes to how we govern ourselves in Canada. I think the reason for this is not enough focus on civic education in school and our bombardment by American media. It's possible that many Canadians know more about how the American government works than they do our own!

Misconception #1: We vote for the Prime Minister of Canada in this election.

I think this misconception has roots in two places: The first is the importance political parties place on who their leaders are and what their leaders are doing. The party leaders say they are running to be the Prime Minister of Canada, and while they are technically correct, they don't get to be Prime Minister based purely on the results of the election. Secondly, I think a lot of people confuse American presidential campaigns with our elections. In the United States, they elect their political executive/head-of-state, while in Canada, we do not.

The Truth: You are actually voting for a local candidate, and the person who gets the most votes will be sent to Ottawa to sit in the House of Commons of Canada as a Member of Parliament (MP). As an example of this Purple Party, led by Ms. Grape, has chosen a candidate to run in your riding. You can vote for Mr. Jelly of the Purple Party in the hopes they will become your Member of Parliament, but you cannot vote for Ms. Grape. The exception to this rule is if you live in Ms. Grape's riding. Party leaders are also seeking a seat in the House of Commons, just like every other candidate for their party.

Then how is the Prime Minister of Canada chosen? Generally, the political party that manages to get the most Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons gets to form government, but not always. More on that later. That means the party leader gets to become the Prime Minister and gets to choose more MPs to become cabinet ministers. The Prime Minister of Canada and their chosen cabinet ministers then run the country and they make up the government.

Misconception #2: Coalitions are a coup d'état. They are wrong and represent the losers overthrowing the rightful winner of an election.

This misconception can be traced to 2008 when the Liberals and NDP tried to form a coalition government with the support of the Bloc Québécois that would have unseated the Conservative minority government that was in power at the time. The Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and the Conservative cabinet ministers, said that such a move was illegitimate, wrong, a coup d'état, and a "coalition of losers." Many people believed them and continue to believe that coalitions are not right in our system of government.

The Truth: Remember how I said that the political party that gets the most seats in the House of Commons gets to form government? This is actually a simplistic way of breaking things down. In reality, because we have something called "Responsible Government," the party leader who can maintain what we call the "confidence of the House," is the person who gets to be the Prime Minister. When we have a "majority government," or a political party getting more then 50% of the seats in the House of Commons, this is pretty straightforward. When we have a "minority government," or no political party getting over 50% of the seats in the House of Commons, but one party getting more seats than the rest of the parties, then things get a little more up in the air. A minority government must rely on another political party to help them stay in power. This can be either through getting the other party to vote for bills they try to pass, forming a formal coalition where both parties share the duties of government, or getting another party to agree to vote for their bills.

Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party wanted people to believe that because they had the most seats out of any party, they had the right to be the government and no other party had that right at all. But this was wrong. As long as a party leader can be sure that more than 50% of the Members of Parliament in the House of Commons will vote to pass his government's bills, then he gets to be the Prime Minister.

For example, if Mr. Mustard of the Yellow Party has 135 MPs in the House of Commons, Ms. Grape of the Purple Party has 115 MPs, and Mr. Hummus of the Brown Party has 88 MPs, any of these party leaders can form the government and become Prime Minister if they can convince another party to support them. Mr. Mustard insists he gets to be the Prime Minister because he has the most seats out of any other party at 135. But, if the Purple Party and the Brown Party won't vote for his bills, he cannot keep the "confidence" of the House of Commons and he must either resign as Prime Minister or a new election must be held. Because the last election was only one month ago and nobody wants another election right away, Ms. Grape convinces Mr. Hummus and the Brown Party to vote for her bills, and she gets to be the Prime Minister. The combined Purple Party and Brown Party MPs in the House of Commons is 203 MPs. Since only 170 MPs are needed to have over 50% of the seats in the House of Commons, they get to pass all the bills they want. Mr. Mustard could try to claim that the Purple/Brown coalition is invalid, or that it is a coup d'état, but our system of government wants to be as stable as possible, and a Purple/Brown coalition is far more stable than the Yellow Party trying to rule the country with the support of less than 50% of the MPs in the House of Commons.

Misconception #3: My party only needs 35 more seats to beat that other party and win the election!

Just cast my vote! Only 35 seats more and #NDP can replace Stephen Harper and bring change we can trust. #TM4PM. pic.twitter.com/lAuFzYOP8j

— Peggy Nash (@PeggyNashNDP) October 10, 2015

This is a misconception being floated by the NDP late in the campaign as an attempt to convince people to vote for them to defeat the Conservatives instead of voting for the Liberals. It's based on outright lies as to how our system of government works plus a misunderstanding of how some aspects of polling work.

Hey @NDP_HQ, you need to stop doing this: It's false, it isn't how things work, it's intentionally lying to voters. pic.twitter.com/grEc4YQPiT

— Wendel Schwab (@WendelSchwab) October 10, 2015

The Truth: To start off, the New Democratic Party can't win the election by getting only 35 more seats. If the NDP did that, they'd have only 35 seats total! Why? Because when the election was first called, it is preceded by an event known as the "dissolution of Parliament." This means that there currently is no Parliament in Canada, each party has exactly zero (0) seats in the House of Commons, which is why if the NDP got 35 more seats added to their current seat amount (0) they would have exactly 35 seats. I'm pretty sure nobody in the NDP wants that to happen.

There are a few explanations as to why the NDP strategists think this will work. They may be counting on the dismal civics education in this country and are pinning their hopes on the fact that people don't realize that this is not how Parliament works. They may be trying to take advantage of a misunderstanding of the "incumbency effect," which is a thing pollsters and statistics nerds take into account when figuring out whether a long-serving MP will win an election against a complete newbie (indeed, the CBC Poll Tracker seat count takes incumbency effect into account when figuring out which party is likely to win the most seats in the House of Commons). The third possibility, which I don't believe personally, is that this is how the NDP actually thinks Canada's system of government works, they honestly believe they need only 35 more seats to beat the Conservatives. In the extremely unlikely event the third possibility is true, I wouldn't trust the NDP to run a hot dog cart, let alone the Government of Canada.

However, it would be foolish for the NDP to assume that they'll automatically get to keep all 103 seats they won in the 2011 election, especially since they're currently polling in the low to mid 20% range while the Liberals and Conservatives are polling in the low to mid 30% range. This means that the current poll numbers show they are far more likely to lose 35 seats when compared to their 2011 popular vote share (30.63%) rather than pick up 35 more seats from what they got in 2011.

Can the #cdnpoli media please call the NDP out on this crap? When HoC dissolves, all parties reduced to 0. #elxn42 pic.twitter.com/1F5o2WOBrP

— Cdn Politico (@CdnPolitico) October 12, 2015

Don't listen to the NDP. Every party begins at zero. We have to earn Every. Single. Vote. @calgarykiaguy pic.twitter.com/lssvmYMZQV

— Seamus O'Regan (@SeamusORegan) October 12, 2015

Misconception #4: When I elect an MP, they have the duty to listen to my wishes and do whatever I say!

This misconception probably comes from how the USA's government works (funny how that seems to happen a lot) as well as changing attitudes towards people we as Canadians consider higher on the social ladder.

The Truth: In Canada we have a system of democratic representation called the "Trustee Model." This means that when we elect an MP, we send them off to Ottawa and trust that they'll make good decisions on our behalves. This is why political parties, party platforms, and party leaders are so important to us. Through those instruments, we know how the MP we trust to make decisions for us will make their decisions, and roughly what decisions they will make. This is also why party discipline is so important in our system of representation. It doesn't matter what the constituents want, you can't ever defy the party leadership. This may seem unrepresentative, but this is actually what the electorate seems to want in Canada. If you voted for Mr. Pear of the Yellow Party, you would be pretty upset if Mr Pear voted against a measure in the Yellow Party platform that you really wanted to see the Yellow Party implement after they got elected. You would probably also be pretty upset if Mr. Pear "crossed the floor" (joined another political party after getting elected) to the Purple Party after you voted for him because you liked the Yellow Party and Mr. Mustard, the Yellow Party leader.

On the other hand, the American system of democratic representation is called the "Delegate Model." When American voters elect a representative and send her to Washington, they expect her to act as a delegate representing their wishes. The party, the party platform and other considerations are still there, but they aren't as strong of a driving force for American voters as they are for Canadian voters. This is why a congressman or congresswoman will vote against their own party if they know their constituents are dead set against what the party wants. They probably won't be punished by the party leadership, or they won't be punished in a way that matters anyway, and they will still be welcomed as a member of their party.  This is why you get a Democratic congresswoman who lives in a state where the citizens don't believe in gun control voting against a Democratic gun control bill even though the entire Democratic Party and the entire Democratic establishment supports the bill and wants it to pass. The congresswoman knows that if she votes for the bill, she'll face the wrath of her electorate in the next election, and she's likely to be voted out of office. While the Democratic congresswoman's electorate agrees with 98% of the things the Democratic Party stands for, gun control is the one issue that is important to the Democrats that they can't abide. The rest of the Democrats in Congress know this too, so they'll give her a pass for voting against this one important Democratic issue knowing she'll support them on most other issues.

In the United States, elected representatives are afraid of the people who voted for them. In Canada, our elected representatives are afraid of the leaders of their political party. I think this attitude is starting to change somewhat as I see more and more people complaining of their MP toeing the party line and voting for what the MP's party leadership wants rather than what the MP's constituents want. There is also something happening in Canadian society called "the decline of deference," named after a book of the same name. In a nutshell, Canadians used to be more deferential toward elites and authorities, like the leadership of a political party, for example. However, there is a shift in Canadian culture where we are no longer as deferential toward authority the way we once were. I think this can lead to people questioning why their MP must always toe the line rather than bowing to the wishes of their constituents. At the same time, remember the scenarios above where Mr. Pear votes against his party's platform or crosses the floor to join another party? While people may be less deferential toward authority, they definitely seem to mostly vote based on party, party leader, and party platform before they vote for a local representative.

I hope this post cleared up any misconceptions you may have had. If there are any more, just post them in the comments below and I'll tackle them when I can. Remember, only 7 days until the election on October 19th! Get ready to vote, or go to the last day of advanced polling today and make your voice heard!

Wendel Schwab

Follow me on Twitter: @WendelSchwab