Manitoba 1926 election – example of disproportionality

Here's an excellent example of disproportionality from Wikipedia: the Canadian federal election of 1926 for the province of Manitoba. The province was entitled to 17 seats in that election. The result was very different from how people voted:

Political party % votes Number
of seats
% seats
Conservative 42.2% 0 0%
Liberal-Progressive 19.5% 7 41%
Liberal Party 18.4% 4 24%
Progressive 11.2% 4 24%
Labour 8.7% 2 12%

The Conservatives clearly had the largest number of votes across the province, but received no seats at all – thanks to the use of plurality voting in districts in which the conservatives never were concentrated enough in any particular district.


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