"On The Other Claw...."

"First Past The Post" is a voting rule. It's the same one you guys use in the US: The person with the most votes on the first count gets the seat. In the US, this means that you have two parties and only two parties, and that any third party by definition tanks it's own side by siphoning votes from the nearer party and allowing the further party to win.

In Canada, we have the same thing, but with 3-5 parties. So what happens is that you have races that go "33% Republican, 32% Democrat, 30% Green Party" and give the Republican the seat because the non-Republican vote is split.

What this means is that a lot of the time, a majority government can be formed out of a minority with a 1% change in support, because the shifting support of the other parties leads to picking up seats. If the vote in a riding was 40% BQ, 30% CPC, 20% Lib, 10% NDP before, and now it's 30% CPC, 25% NDP, 25% BQ, 20% Lib? The CPC just gained a seat without gaining a single vote, and with 70% of the voters voting against them.


As far as Canadian Politics For Unitistanis:

Okay, first: We don't vote for the Prime Minister the way you vote for the President. Instead, we vote *only* for our local Member Of Parliament, who is the equivalent of your Congresscreature. The Prime Minister is the MP who has the largest bloc of other MPs following him and voting with him. If the US worked the way we do, the House Leader would become President.

A "majority government" is one where your bloc controls more than 50% of the seats, total, and thus can pass anything it wants. This is the default in the USA, where one side or another controls Congress by having more seats.


A "minority government" is when the largest block is still not a majority - in order to pass a law, you MUST have the support of at least some of the people outside your party. Imagine a US Senate with 48 Republicans, 49 Democrats, and 3 Independents. It takes 50 votes to pass something, so neither the Republicans nor the Democrats can get anything done unless someone from the other party, or an Independent, sides with them. That's a minority government.

A "Coalition Government" is when multiple parties band together to form a bloc large enough to make a government. For example, in 2008 Stephen Harper controlled the largest single group of seats, but Layton, Dion, and Duceppe *combined* outnumbered him, so they signed an agreement to work together and have Dion now control the largest block. Of course, what HAPPENED is that Harper immediately closed Parliament so they couldn't file the paperwork, provoked a constitutional crisis rather than leave office, and waited for Rae and Ignatieff to go all Ides Of March on Dion.