Canada’s federal voting system is constitutional, Ontario Court of Appeal rules

OTTAWA — The Ontario Court of Appeal has affirmed the constitutionality of Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system.

The system, laid out in the Canada Elections Act, sees the candidate who receives the most votes in a given riding or electoral district become the member of Parliament.

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Fair Voting BC and the Springtide Collective for Democratic Society argued the first-past-the-post voting system violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantee of effective representation.

The groups also said the system leads to the underrepresentation of women and other groups in Parliament, breaching the Charter’s equality rights provision.

Under a proportional representation system, the number of representatives a party elects reflects the percentage of the total vote the party receives.

In November 2023, the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the groups’ challenge, saying that while a proportional representation system would be a fair alternative to the current one, it is not required by the Constitution.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2025.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press