The Case Against First Past the Post

Andrew Coyne's article from The National Post.

These anomalies and distortions are reflections of what goes on at the riding level: The winner is not the candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast, but simply the one who comes in first place. With four candidates, it can be done with as little as 25% of the vote plus one. The other 75% of the voters are rewarded for doing their civic duty with?bupkus. All in all, between one-half and two-thirds of all the votes cast in a given election are, in this sense, wasted.