Comparative Elections and Voting: Do Canadians Have Too Few Electorial Choices, or Do Americans Have Too Many?

• Pages: 109-136

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Comparative Elections and Voting:

Do Canadians Have Too Few Electoral

Choices, or Do Americans Have

Too Many?

Introduction

Do Canadians have too few electoral choices, or do Americans have

too many? Why are there so many more viable political parties in

Canada than in the United States? Why are there more elected

positions in the United States, where voters vote with much more

frequency than Canadians? What role does money play in elec-

tions in the two countries? is chapter looks at the similarities

and dierences between the two countries in terms of how they

conduct elections and voting, and the party systems in Canada and

the United States.

A. Elections in Canada and the United States

1) Frequency of Voting

Both Canada and the United States are democracies, but they run

their electoral systems and practise party politics in strikingly dif-

ferent ways. Consider the frequency with which a citizen votes, for

instance. Most Americans can vote at least twice a year every year —

Canadians do not vote anywhere near as often. In the United States,

THE SAME, ONLY DIFFERENT

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primary elections, in which ocial candidates for Democratic and

Republican parties for various oces are chosen, occur every year.

Primary election dates vary by state; in Pennsylvania, for instance,

they are always in April or May. Texas usually holds them in March.

California and several other states hold them in June, while Florida

holds theirs in August and Massachusetts in September. e United

States general election is always in November, where voters choose

between Democrat, Republican, or (sometimes) Independent can-

didates for oce. at is a lot of voting!

If you live in the city of Toronto, you would normally vote for

f‌ive oces over a four-year period. In September , you would

have had the opportunity to vote in a federal election for one can-

didate for Member of Parliament (MP) in Ottawa; in June ,

you could have voted in a provincial election for one candidate for

Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP). In October , you

could have voted in a municipal election for a city councilor, school

board trustee, and mayor. Due to the resignation of the mayor,

Torontonians voted for that oce again in June , but normally,

most Toronto voters would have had no government elections in

 or .

If you live in Erie, Pennsylvania, over that same four-year per-

iod, you could have voted for up to eighty oces in elections that

occur twice per year. Over half of these elections are for judges,

whereas in Canada, no judges are elected. In , Pennsylvania

elected a governor; a lieutenant governor; a United States senator

in Washington, DC; a United States Representative in Washing-

ton, DC; and a state representative in Harrisburg, the state cap-

ital. In , Erie residents even voted for county coroner. A local

funeral director has always won the job. While it might not be

clear what a funeral director would know about criminal forensic

investigations, the good people of E rie made that choice nonethe-

less. And who could argue with vox populi? According to one 

study, there were , elected ocials in the United States, 

percent of whom were local, . percent were state, and . percent

were federal.