Groups, parties demand electoral reform following Quebec’s ‘distorted’ election results

In the wake of Quebec’s election, electoral reform is on the minds of many, including leaders of parties like Quebec solidaire’s Gabriel Nadeau Dubois, who said the results reflect a broken system.

“Your vote has to count, and having some form of representation based on some form of proportional representation is necessary, especially in a five party system,” said political analyst, Karim Boulos.

François Legault and the Coalition Avenir Québec welcomed a resounding majority government victory with under 50 per cent of the vote, while parties, including QS, received more total votes than the Quebec Liberal Party, who won captured seats and formed the official opposition.

“Four parties who had more or less 15 per cent of the popular vote, and one party picked up just a little over 40 per cent of the popular vote,” said Boulos. “Yet in the seat distribution, the 40 per cent party got 90 out of 125 seats, whereas the other four parties had anywhere from zero to 21 seats for the same proportional vote pickup.”

The four runners up received similar results between them in terms of popular support – but not seats won. The Liberal party received fewer votes (14.37 per cent) than Québec solidaire (15.43 per cent), but nearly double the seats.

The Parti Québécois got three seats and 14.60 per cent of the vote – also more than the Liberals.

And the Conservative Party of Quebec didn’t capture any seats, but almost 13 per cent of the 4.1 million people who turned up for the election voted for them. 

“If you voted, that is another way of saying, you’ve had your say,” said Boulos. “Now, it’s hard to uphold that argument when 500,000 Quebecers voted for a party that has zero seats in the National Assembly, whereas another 500,000 people voted for a party that has 21 seats in the National Assembly.”

READ MORE: François Legault re-elected premier of Quebec, leads CAQ to second majority

“Our electoral system often leads to distortions exaggerating the seats for the party that came in first and underrepresented everybody else, this is what happened here,” said Henry Milner, senior researcher, Political Science Department at University of Montreal & member, Mouvement démocratie nouvelle.

The group, Mouvement démocratie nouvelle, has launched a campaign called “it’s just not just,” explaining how a majority government forms without the majority of the total vote count. They’ve launched a petition demanding electoral reform.

“The alternative that is used in most democratic countries is a simple proportional system where in your region you have a list from each party, you vote for the party, and then the seats are allocated according to the support for each party,” said Milner.

Under this kind of system, Legault would have still won a majority, but with fewer seats and more representation for other parties.

While in opposition before the 2018 election, the CAQ leader promised to reform the electoral system, but changed his tune after he won a massive victory.

On Tuesday, Legault said he wouldn’t reopen the debate and that he would reach out to party leaders to see if they would work with him.

“I don’t expect him to change the system tomorrow, but I think at the very least it should create a commission to study the question,” said Milner. “Next election, let’s count on actually being represented fairly in the legislature.”