That’s a false worry.
As a Canadian with multiple political parties in our house of parliament, numbers don’t change.
If one left party gets 100 seats, the second left party gets 20, and the right leaning party gets 115 (for example) The right leaning party, yes technically, gets to say they’re in charge. But they can’t really do anything without cooperation from the left.
115 < 120 regardless of the number of parties.
Parties matter less than right vs left matters.
Yes, but if one left party gets 100 votes, the second left party gets 20 votes, and the right leaning party gets 115 (for example) The right leaning party gets the seat.
I’m sure you’ve seen examples of Liberal and NDP votes combined outnumbering the Conservative votes on a riding but the Conservative still won.
Yes. That’s my point. It’s called a minority government and it means no one side can do anything without collaboration from the other side no matter who’s nominally “in charge”.
I’m not talking about total seats, I’m talking about in one specific riding. Whatever district you are in, if the Conservative MP in your area gets 40% of the vote, and the liberal and NDP MPs each get 30% of the vote, the Conservative wins the seat and the other parties get nothing in that district, despite 60% of voters voting for left leaning parties.
I think it’s awesome that Canada is able to support more than 2 parties, but that doesn’t mean the spoiler effect doesn’t exist.