WFV Why does the present system not work?

This situation causes major distortions in our democratic system and some feel it leads to our record-low voter turnout. Many people vote all their lives and become discouraged since their preferred party never gets in their riding--this happens to over 50% of us election after election. These are called wasted votes--a term used by political scientists to describe votes cast that do not contribute to electing anyone. In New Zealand, under their MMP system, only 2% of votes are wasted and people there can be confident that their policy preferences will be accurately reflected in the makeup of the new parliament.

But most importantly, the impact of this system on women and minorities is profound. Under our system, we rarely elect more than 20-25% women. At the federal level, we have hit a glass ceiling and have actually started to decline. The United Nations has noted that we need at least 30% women at the table to have our voices heard. Others say, given our diversity, we need 40%. It is no wonder that policy issues that pertain o women are not given much attention.

In a country where 52% of the population are women, this is a serious lack of representation. Numerous researchers have clearly laid the blame on our single-member riding system. Each riding association, often comprised of scarcely 200-300 individuals, chooses our representatives. Eighty percent of the time it is not a woman. The rationale is since there is only one person that can be elected in each constituency, the person the electorate is most likely to accept is a middle-aged, white male. This goes against recent evidence that finds that 90% of Canadians want to elect more women.
It also goes against the fact that women are legitimate communities of interests—they have policy concerns that differ from those of men. This nomination process is often quixotic and not transparent—frequently woman candidates have a hard time discovering the rules under which they are to run. Even the undemocratic senate has more women than our current supposedly democratic voting system produces for our legislatures.