A Losing Game: Electoral Reform and Democratic Participation in Canada
What happens when candidates enter elections knowing they cannot win? When the system itself determines outcomes before campaigns begin? The National Film Board documentary A Losing Game (2025) follows three candidates in Quebec's 2022 provincial election—each facing near-certain defeat—to expose the structural barriers that shape who can succeed in Canadian politics and who is systematically excluded.
The Promise and Reality of Democracy
Democratic theory promises that citizens choose their representatives, that anyone can seek office, and that elections determine governance. Canadian reality is more complicated. Electoral systems, campaign finance rules, media coverage patterns, and party structures all shape outcomes in ways that advantage some candidates while disadvantaging others.
Canada uses a first-past-the-post electoral system where the candidate with the most votes in each riding wins, regardless of whether they achieve a majority. This system tends to produce majority governments from minority vote shares, disadvantages smaller parties whose support is spread geographically, and creates "safe seats" where outcomes are predetermined by riding demographics.
For candidates from underrepresented groups—women, racialized people, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities—these structural barriers compound. They face not just the general challenges of campaigning but additional obstacles rooted in bias, resource access, and systemic exclusion.
Barriers to Candidacy
Financial barriers affect who can afford to run. Campaigns cost money—for staff, advertising, travel, materials. While campaign finance laws limit spending and provide some public funding, the personal costs of campaigning (time away from work, childcare, living expenses) fall on candidates themselves. Those without personal wealth or access to wealthy networks face disadvantages from the start.
Party gatekeeping determines who appears on ballots with party labels that voters recognize. Nomination processes vary in openness; incumbents often face advantages in renomination; party power brokers can influence who gets nominated in winnable ridings versus unwinnable ones. Candidates from underrepresented groups may find themselves nominated in ridings their parties can't win.
Media coverage shapes voter awareness and candidate viability. Coverage tends toward front-runners and established parties, creating self-fulfilling prophecies where lack of coverage ensures lack of support ensures lack of coverage. Candidates outside the mainstream struggle for visibility regardless of their qualifications or ideas.
Voter perception biases affect how candidates are evaluated. Research documents that voters evaluate women, racialized people, and other underrepresented candidates differently than white male candidates—not always consciously, but consequentially. These biases interact with media coverage to shape who seems "electable."
Quebec's Electoral System
Quebec, like most Canadian jurisdictions, uses first-past-the-post for provincial elections. The 2022 election that A Losing Game documents produced stark results: the Coalition Avenir Québec won 90 of 125 seats with 41% of the vote, while Québec solidaire won 11 seats with 15% and the Parti Québécois won 3 seats with 15%. The Liberals, despite 14% support, won 21 seats concentrated in anglophone and minority-heavy ridings.
These results illustrate first-past-the-post's distortions. Votes for parties whose support is geographically concentrated translate into seats; votes for parties with diffuse support often don't. Millions of voters cast ballots that elect no one. Strategic voting—choosing not your preferred candidate but the one most likely to defeat your least-preferred—becomes rational, distorting preference expression.
Quebec has repeatedly considered electoral reform, with various commissions recommending proportional or mixed systems. These recommendations have not been implemented. The parties that benefit from the current system—typically those winning power under it—have little incentive to change rules that advantage them.
Electoral Reform Debates
Canada has debated electoral reform for decades without fundamental change. British Columbia, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island have held referenda on electoral reform; all failed to achieve the supermajorities required for change. The federal government promised electoral reform in 2015, then abandoned the commitment after a committee process that couldn't achieve consensus.
Arguments for proportional representation emphasize that it would make every vote count, produce legislatures reflecting actual voter preferences, and encourage diverse representation. Arguments against cite complexity, the potential for unstable coalition governments, and the loss of local representation that single-member ridings provide.
Mixed systems attempt to combine benefits of both approaches—local representatives elected in ridings plus additional members ensuring proportional outcomes. But these systems are more complex to explain and implement, and complexity becomes an argument against change in referendum campaigns.
Beyond Electoral Systems
Electoral reform alone wouldn't address all barriers to democratic participation. Campaign finance rules, media concentration, political party structures, and cultural attitudes all shape who participates and who succeeds.
Expanding participation might require:
Campaign finance reform that reduces the importance of fundraising ability through public financing, spending limits, and contribution restrictions. The less money matters, the more candidates without wealth or wealthy connections can compete.
Media regulation that ensures diverse voices receive coverage, counters concentration of media ownership, and supports local and independent journalism that covers all candidates, not just front-runners.
Party reform that opens nomination processes, ensures diverse candidates have opportunities in winnable ridings, and reduces the power of party insiders over candidate selection.
Candidate support programs that help underrepresented candidates navigate the process, build networks, develop skills, and access resources that established politicians take for granted.
Why Participation Matters
When the same types of people consistently win elections—disproportionately white, male, wealthy, and well-connected—policy reflects their perspectives and priorities. Legislatures that don't look like the populations they serve may not understand or address the concerns of excluded communities.
Beyond policy outcomes, representation itself matters. Seeing people like yourself in positions of power affects beliefs about what's possible. Young people from underrepresented groups who see no one like themselves in politics may conclude politics isn't for them—a self-reinforcing cycle of exclusion.
And democracy's legitimacy depends on the sense that participation is meaningful. When outcomes seem predetermined, when votes don't translate into representation, when barriers exclude entire categories of people, faith in democratic institutions erodes. Low turnout, cynicism, and disengagement follow.
Questions for Reflection
Does Canada's electoral system serve democratic values? What would a more representative system look like?
What barriers to political participation have you observed or experienced? What would make running for office more accessible?
Documentary films like A Losing Game reveal systemic patterns through individual stories. What do the experiences of candidates who can't win tell us about what needs to change for democracy to deliver on its promises?