What's first past the post? | Nerds on Politics

What does the term “first past the post” mean? Known as FPTP for short, it’s the voting system used in all Canadian provinces and many other democracies around the world.

As Steve Paikin says in this TVO Nerds on Politics explainer, the term “first past the post” is inherited from British horse racing. But it has come to mean a winner-take-all electoral system where the candidate with the most votes wins – whether they win by one vote or 10,000 votes.

That means under FPTP MPs, MPPs, and MLAs often win without a majority of votes. However, is that democratic? Many smaller parties, such as the NDP and the Green Party, say the first-past-the-post system hurts their chances at the ballot box.

Our political system also means prime ministers and premiers are not directly elected, even though they run the government. Party leaders must run in a single constituency like other candidates. That’s different than in U.S. politics, where state governors and American presidents are chosen directly by voters. In our democracy, where prime ministers and premiers have a lot of power when in government, should they be directly elected instead? Or since most voters make their choice based on the leader and the party platform, does it really matter?

This crash course is a good primer for anyone trying to understand how elections and parliamentary democracy work in Canada, Ontario, other Canadian provinces, Britain, India and other countries that share this system.

00:00 Intro
00:09 Do you vote directly for the prime minster?
00:19 The origin of “first past the post”
00:44 How does the “first past the post” electoral system work in Ontario?
1:00 How does someone win an election without a majority vote?
1:32 The difference between the Canadian and United States’ voting systems
1:58 Should the premier have power without being directly elected?
2:51 Voters elect the leads, party, and platform – not the candidate

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