How would you go about losing a Canadian election? That might sound like a trick question, but with a national campaign coming up this fall, a surprising number of people are acting as if they’re determined to lose. The essential tactic, which works elsewhere too, is to run as if you didn’t believe your beliefs and were in fact ashamed of them.
In case you aren’t Canadian and are less fascinated by us than we sometimes suppose, Canada is nearly a pure parliamentary system. We elect 338 members of Parliament in single-member constituencies using a first-past-the-post system, and whoever commands the support of a majority of MPs holds the office of prime minister as long as they keep the “confidence” of the House of Commons.
