Electoral Reform: Dual Member Proportional Explained

Dual Member Proportional (DMP) is a voting system designed to meet Canada's unique needs. For details, visit the DMP for Canada website:

DMP was an option on both the 2018 British Columbia Referendum and the 2016 Prince Edward Island Plebiscite. Below are the best explanations of DMP from BC and PEI:

To see how DMP compares with other voting reform options for Canada, check out this interactive visualization:

Please share your interest in DMP with your Member of Parliament (MP). You find can him/her using the link below:

This video was produced in 2016 while the Parliament of Canada's Special Committee on Electoral Reform was examining alternative voting systems, including DMP:

Please like the video. And don't forget to share it with your fellow Canadians! Thanks!

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Animation and sound work done by Ryerson University media production students Michal Heuston and Vincent Piette.

[recurse]

What an amazing job! Very professional and informative. I support DMP as the right choice for Prince Edward Island and for Canada. It means so much that people are willing to put in the time and energy to put together such excellent materials to make it a reality.

[theyoungcentrist]

Dual Member Proportional can work very well in the US Senate. While Mixed Member Proportional can work in the US House.

[samsamamb]

In Australia we use IRV/Ranked choice voting for single member constituencies for the lower house and STV/ranked PR for the upper house, it works well imo bc local members are elected as the least worst option (and yes candidates that win 2nd or 3rd place of the vote share can win the seat because it’s ranked) and PR is used for the upper house ensuring other parties are heard. It means you get the benefits of mostly 2 party states and multi party PR… you should advocate for STV/ranked, so tactical voting is not needed and an individuals least bad option is elected and all the negatives of FPTP is gone. Because new/want to be NDP voters will have confidence to vote that party because they know that if the NDP is not elected voters know their vote will go to the Liberal party (their likely 2nd favourite candidate) potentially stopping 2 conservatives winning out (hypothetically) because the vote is split. Mandatory (not optional) Ranked choice voting does not allow vote splitting. And it also allows multiple rounds of voting to occur without people needing to show up to another polling station a week later (like in France).

Also I think this proposal is too complicated to carry out and I think ranked choice MMP much a better and simpler system. Like have 17 single member seats in Alberta determined by IRV, then the 17 other members are state-wide and are determined by the state’s vote share. I think it’s much simpler for a regular voter to understand. Then those 17 state wide members can set up their offices in seats where they got the most support. In my opinion your proposal is not fair (as it’s not ranked) or easy to understand.

[wan-ligibson]

Love this video and am super glad it exists to help explain the DMP system!

[fdahm]

The main problem with this (other than it's likely to be too complicated for a sizable proportion of the population to understand... I'm university educated and it was a challenge to follow completely) is that if you have two candidates, you may well vote for the second candidate (because he/she has the same views as you, along the party lines) and you wind up with the primary candidate instead. Because of the manner in which the second candidate is elected, you wind up with the primary candidate of another party and thus, whom you voted (and likely whom other people voted as well) isn't the person representing you. So this system of voting has two major, non-trivial, flaws. I prefer rounds of voting where, until a person has more than 50% of the vote, you chop off the weakest candidate and do another round of elections with the remaining candidates until you are left with a candidate that has more than 50% of the vote. It's like when a party elects a new chief, but without the candidate pledging his votes (it'll ALWAYS be the voters who decide in the end).

[noober]

I was very confused about DMP when thinking of my vote for the BC electoral reform referendum. This video cleared things up for me, I will vote for DMP. Thanks

[rafaeljames]

This is cool, but why not just use STV(especially if you don't really care about how complicated and potentially confusing it is for people)?
I would think STV puts more power in the hands of the voter than this system does while still maintaining basically proportional results.

[micahracism]

I have a few questions regarding the proposed Dual-Member Proportional Representation. Under the system, why would a party only stand one candidate in a riding/constituency? What happens when their sole candidate wins? Do they simply get removed just like that without being given a chance to win the second seat? Also, what would happen if a certain party chose *not* to contest in all the ridings/constituences in the election, and chose to contest only a few of them? How would the 'second seats' be allocated fairly to the parties? I may not fully understand the system considering how complex it is compared to the current FPTP, so could someone please kindly explain it to me?

[worldparkfoto]

DMP is a good start to electoral reform, however a fatal flaw is that it still will favour two persons for a popular party. A strong candidate would also be boosting a weaker candidate from the same party – so even a 60-40 or 50-30 vote share within a party could be unfair.

Since the whole idea of DMP & electoral reform is to promote diversity & empower other political groups, a better solution could be that the second place party automatically wins the second seat. WestCanAlliance.ca supports a modified DMP that we call Dual Party Voting whereby voting is for only one candidate per party and the second place party gets the second seat of two merged ridings. That would ensure every riding has a locally accessible & politically empowered alternative to present other fair views about govt issues and to locally take complaints to watchdog the winning party during the next 4 years.

[shirleyjackson]

Thank you for the video. The explanations combined with the visuals make it so much easier to understand than just having it explained in words. Yes, I am one of those people who can understand things better visually than verbally. I am certainly voting FOR proportional representation in the B.C. referendum Fall 2918. Which system. I'm still educating myself, and this type of presentation really helps.

[lobstercation]

Merging riding would make voting in rural areas a joke.

[alzon]

Seems weird to couple two candidates together so closely. What if during the campaign the second candidate says something stupid or turns out to be a wacko?! He could sink the prospects of the first candidate for reasons outside of that first candidate's control. I can't even imagine how parties would handle nominations under this system.

[Spudstr]

3:40 Wait a minute... in Canada we don't have ridings with equal levels of population. E.g. in BC riding population levels vary by as much as 50%! So how do you factor this in when figuring out which second candidate from a party got the most support? Do you judge popularity by total votes received or their percentage of support in the riding?

[tarahhillson]

Question. If the liberals run a team of two candidates in one electoral boundary, why not rank the two candidate options for the party or team you are voting for to determine the primary candidate? I like DMP except for the fact my vote would counts towards two candidates. I'd rather rank my choice between the two candidates running for the party of my choosing.

[dariowiter]

Well, as an American, I'll say this: this system certainly beats the PR System, which depends on the D'Hondt, Hare, and St. Langue(sp?) methods of representation! ☺️🗳️🇨🇦

[raytonlin]

Is there a reason the second candidate gets half the votes of the winning candidate in the riding? Why not perhaps the number of votes that the first place candidate got over the second place candidate?

[WanukeX]

I Love DMP, my only real issue with it is the use of the Hare Quota, the massive issues around the results of using it (It balkanizes political parties) such as in hong kong is an issue.

[CheeseTheAnimator_onGoAnimate]

Wait, does the provincial popular vote determine how many seats are allocated or is that by constituency?

[kelseyhannan]

DMP would be way better if I could vote between the primary and secondary candidate running for each party, like an Open List.

[derekg]

Maybe DMP could work if voters would be able to rank candidates... the first seat could go to a candidate with 33.34% of the vote... the second seat could use remainder votes from the district losers and surplus votes (if any) from the district winners... why a ranked ballot? A ranked ballot would achieve positive campaigning and more sincere votes... maybe if you want to include thresholds it should be a "candidate quota" that a candidate would have to get before qualifying for the second seat allocation... so if you have 10 candidates, all candidates that got 1/11th of the district's votes can continue... I would have second preferences kick in if an elected candidate has a surplus...