Canada’s October 21 federal election exposed some very deep divisions in the country. Although the ruling Liberals won the most seats (157 to the Conservatives’ 121) despite losing the popular vote, they saw their parliamentary majority reduced to a minority.
With Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system seats can be won with small margins – especially where five parties (six in Quebec) are competing for votes. The Liberals thus were able to win a lot of these tight races, especially in eastern Canada, while the Conservatives racked up huge margins (85 percent of the vote in five-way races in some cases) in the West – particularly in the oil-producing provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, where the Liberals did not elect a single member.