At the May 2011 Canadian parliamentary election, the average district will have slightly more than 5 candidates on the ballot. Here is a link to an official list of the candidates. There are 308 districts, and 1,587 candidates. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
Canadian ballot access laws treat all candidates equally. Each candidate needs 100 signatures and a filing fee of $1,000 (Canadian dollars, of course). The ballot access laws do not depend on the candidate’s party or lack of partisan affiliation.
Some equal ballot access stuff in Canada.
BUT — Canada has the totally EVIL gerrymander / plurality area fixation (i.e. de facto gerrymanders) for electing legislators — carried over from England in the 1760s.
Due to the 3-5 larger parties in each district, the new regime will be de facto elected by about 20-25 percent of all of the voters – but quite possibly less than 20 percent — compounded by the EVIL dangerous parliamentary regime stuff — the party hacks having both legislative and executive powers.
Imagine a U.S.A. Prez being in the gerrymander Congress with his/her gang of party hack gangsters.
Minority rule in the U.S.A. is about 30 percent — average 60 percent gerrymander district winners – half for one party control
— 60 x 1/2 = 30
At least some defective attempts at separation of powers in the U.S.A.
P.R. and App.V.
According to the Green Party of Canada web site, the Green Party is only the 4th party in the nation’s history to put Greens on the ballot in all 308 districts (ridings they call it) in Canada.
Greens did it 4 years ago, and have repeated the same feat again this time.
There was at least one Green Party candidate, approved on the ballot, that may need to be replaced. It appears he has withdrawn over some controversial facebook posts.
We’re covering the Canada Green Party candidates every day at Independent Green Party News.
Green Party is running a strong campaign and moving up in the polls.
http://www.votejoinrun.us/news.html
I find Canada’s ballot access particularly interesting because despite Canada’s use of Plurality, it actually elects third parties. And it elects them at the Federal level. The Senate has two members from the Progressive-Conservative Party and two independents (of 100). The House of Commons has 49 seats for Bloc Québécois and 37 for the New Democratic Party (out of 306). [See Wikipedia]
I wonder what the mentality is that reduces voters’ fear over vote splitting. I don’t know if something in Canadia’s history caused this change (Tommy Douglas?), or if it was always like that. And why is it that major parties in Canada haven’t used their power to rig election laws like they have in the US?
Perhaps this means that Duverger’s Law is more accurately represented as Duverger’s Barrier. And for whatever reason the Canadians haven’t embraced proportional systems. For instance, they rejected STV in British Columbia in 2009.
@3, the reduced fear of vote splitting is not the result of tradition or attitudes. It’s mostly the result of the geographic distribution of political opinion. The Parti Quebecois has majority support in much of Quebec. Less obvious is the fact that in British Columbia the NDP is the the only sizable liberal party (the British Columbia Liberals are in fact aligned with federal Conservatives). And so on.
Another factor is that the Canadian federal House of Commons has one seat for every 107,000 or so persons. The U.S. House of Representatives has one seat for every 715,000 or so persons. Smaller districts make it easier for parties and ideologies that are a minority in the country as a whole.
@4
That makes sense that representation would be afforded when a third party has geographical density. Even so, I find it interesting that there’s no spoiler talk. I understand your point of the alignment between the Liberal and Conservative Parties. But I still find it interesting that a rhetoric hasn’t taken hold. I’d expect the rhetoric to state that the Liberals are better than the Conservatives and therefore voters shouldn’t waste their vote on the NDP. I wonder if that strategy was brought up, or if it was brought up and fought off somehow.
Given all that, it would seem that third parties being thinly dispersed over the US certainly interferes with their ability to get elected. But unlike Canada, voters still seem hesitant to closely align Republicans with Democrats–at least enough to make a difference in feeling safe to vote in a third party.
You also make a good observation on the size of districts. Perhaps that’s the biggest factor.
What is the average number of candidates on the ballot for U.S. House?
# 6 See the Federal Elections series in the library part of the FEC website or the U.S. H. Reps. website – clerk – election info – past elections.
Roughly 2.5 average per gerrymander district in most party hack States ???
More in the States with easier ballot access — perhaps 4 plus ???
#6, generally between 2.5 and 3 candidates in the average US House race.
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1. As I understand things, the Canada Supreme Court has been a pretty strong defender of citizen’s right to vote as well as candidacy rights. They struck down restrictive ballot access law in a high profile voting rights case, where as the U.S. Supreme Court has gone in another direction.
2. Smaller districts might be an issue (along with ballot access). How does the Canadian press cover third parties compared to the US? Although, much of it may be that one third party is supported by a French Quebec sentiment (very strong emotions on that one), and a bill of rights.
3. Maybe we need to have a conversation in the United States about the right to vote and hold office, which was not really talked about on a serious level since the discussion and debate about the 15th Amendment, especially the wording.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/
the various party hack gangs raving at each other.
Good point — at least the raving is SHORT — about 5 weeks from the day that the election is ordered to election day.
Any Canada military folks fighting in Asia — waiting for ballots ???
P.R. and nonpartisan A.V. — in ALL regimes – before it is too late.
Using a similar election system (district & first past the post) Canadians have an average 11-15% lower rate of re-election (to the House of Commons) than there is in the United States for House of Representatives.
Last 40 Congressional elections – 90.7% of Rep’s were re-elected
since 1872 – 87.5% of Rep’s were re-elected
since 1790 – 86.7% of Rep’s were re-elected
Interestingly, this is the LOWEST number of candidates for House of Commons since 1988 when there were 1574 candidates for 295 seats.
AND there has been an average over 5 candidates per Riding per election since 1979 – during that time an average 76.85% MP’s were re-elected; with a low of 41% in 1993 & high of 90.7% in 2000.
Yes, but when push comes to shove how many people here are willing to donate their time and money to a national campaign to focus on ballot access law reform.
Heck, I kinda like the idea of seeing if the original draft of the 15th Amendment could be reintroduced and passed.
Also, the Senate is not voted on in Canada…the Prime Minister picks and chooses who gets to be in the Senate, and who doesn’t. The New Democrats, Bloc Quebecois and Green parts have no representation in the Senate…it’s one of the NDP’s key issues this campaign.