Toronto, August 13, 2025 – On Monday, the Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously upheld the constitutionality of Canada’s first past the post electoral system.
Fair Voting BC and Springtide Collective for Democracy Society had challenged provisions of the Canada Elections Act setting out Canada’s “first past the post” electoral system, arguing that they violate section 3 (voting rights) and section 15 (equality rights) of the Charter.
The organizations argued that the first past the post system does not provide effective representation or meaningful participation for Canadian voters. They also contended that this system leads to the underrepresentation of women and racialized people in Parliament because it reduces incentives for political parties to nominate balanced slates of candidates compared to proportional representation systems.
LEAF intervened to argue that when someone alleges a law – such as the law creating Canada’s first past the post system – violates their Charter-protected equality rights, they should not be required to prove that this law is the only or the dominant cause of underrepresentation. Instead, equality law requires evidence that the law is merely a cause.
In dismissing the equality rights claim, the Court held that the expert evidence did not establish that first past the post systems create or contribute to a disproportionate impact on women or racialized people in a discriminatory manner.
“We are disappointed that the Court did not engage more meaningfully with the realities of political participation for women in Canada,” says Kat Owens, Interim Legal Director at LEAF.
The Court also took issue with the lower court judge’s acceptance that the percentage of women in Canada’s Parliament, which is 30%, was “too low” but a result of “society’s systemic sexism” rather than the first past the post system. The Court characterized these findings as “highly contestable political judgments, not matters of constitutional rights governed by the Charter.”
“Making equality rights real demands that courts appreciate the effects of systemic discrimination – including systemic sexism and systemic racism – and how it interacts with the challenged law,” says Owens. “Far from being outside the purview of courts, this analysis lies at the heart of equality rights cases.”
LEAF is grateful to have been represented pro bono by Tina Lie and Mariam Moktar (Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP) in this case.
LEAF’s interventions are guided, informed, and supported by a case committee with expertise in the relevant issues. We are grateful to this intervention’s case committee members (in alphabetical order): Gillian Bourke and Margot Young.
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About the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is a national not-for-profit and charity that works to advance the equality rights of women, girls, trans, and non-binary people in Canada through litigation, law reform, and public legal education. Since 1985, LEAF has intervened in more than 130 cases that have helped shape the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To find out more, visit www.leaf.ca.
