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This last election brought us to a new low in voter turnout. Many people blame this on our first-past-the-post electoral system, which produces wasted votes.

However, in talking with people, I was surprised at how few can articulate exactly what a wasted vote is. A wasted vote can be defined as one that doesn't affect the parties' seat counts.

Most people think that if you didn't vote for the winning candidate in your riding, your vote is wasted. This is only partly true. Under first-past-the-post, the winning candidate only needs to get a single vote more than the second-place finisher. Any votes he or she receives above that is also "wasted".

People understand this intuitively. That's why many people stay home when they know their preferred candidate doesn't have a chance and why they also stay at home when their preferred candidate is assured a victory.

This is only half of the story. Under Canada's Election Finances Act, the party you voted for gets annual funding based on the number of votes it collected in the election. Moreover, a candidate needs to get at least five per cent (or two per cent nationally for the party) of the vote in order to qualify for election expense rebates.

Every vote counts toward funding your preferred party in federal elections in Canada. For that reason, the only truly wasted vote is the one you didn't cast or that you didn't cast for the party of your choice.

Gary Dale