About VoteLab

Voting systems shape who gets elected and how much of a voice voters get in parliament. Canada and the provinces all use a voting system inherited from 19th century Britain called First-Past-The-Post in which the province or country is divided up into separate geographic areas called ridings and a single representative is elected in each. This means only one political view from each riding is represented in parliament, and the others are left out. Such exclusion tends to promote grievance and division in our society.

But FPTP is not the only way to vote. Most modern democracies use other voting systems that are intended to represent a wider range of political views from all areas of the country. There have been a number of calls in Canada over the past twenty years or so to change the way we vote, but it's always been difficult for voters to picture how our politics might look different under a new system.

Single-member districts each elect one representative, so each area sends a single voice to Parliament even though its voters hold competing political views. A multi-member district elects several, so its representatives better reflect the range of views in each district.

VoteLab is designed to help make these alternatives more concrete by giving you an opportunity to experience what it would be like to cast a ballot in the Canadian context using a different voting system. We do this by mapping ridings and candidates from real Canadian elections onto several different voting systems. You can cast a ballot in your home riding and see how that might change both who might be elected locally as well as the overall mix of elected representatives across the province or country.

VoteLab is an initiative of Springtide, a national charity that seeks to promote more fair, inclusive, and democratic public institutions, challenge discriminatory and exclusionary practices in politics, and empower individuals and organizations to lead political change aligned with these values.