Many posters on the SDMB believe that Hilary Clinton should be the President of the United States because she won the popular vote in the 2016 election. This question is addressed to those believers. Should Andrew Scheer, whose Conservative Party won the popular vote in the 2018 election, be Canada’s Prime Minister?
No. We have a radically different governmental system. It wouldn’t logically work. How do you govern with 121 out of 270 seats?
The president on the other hand is the only member of the executive branch. So he can logically be elected by a popular vote and govern.
What a gotcha!
So people claiming the EC is an illegitimate method of determining a change in their federal executive should also claim the same for a completely different system that determines both executive & legislative representatives? Seems like a pointless question.
Andrew Scheer received some 24,233 votes out of 17 million or so cast. One would have expected someone giving their location as London to recognize how the Westminster system works.
Oh, so it’s like the Westminster Dog Show!
Well, now that I realize that I can understand British politics, I’ll start watching.
What do you mean by “should”? Given the mechanism for electing the president spelled out in the United States constitution and in electoral convention, and tacitly agreed by all candidates by their participating in the election, Donald Trump has been unambiguously elected President of the United States. Therefore, it would not have been acceptable if Hillary Clinton had been inaugurated as president instead of him on January 20, 2017.
Whether this mechanism accurately reflects the will of the people, while ensuring that regional concerns are taken into account, and whether it respects all the other attributes we want a representative democracy to have, is another question.
Trudeau received 24,797 so it’s ok. 
The likely result of this election is a minority Liberal government with some level of support from the NDP party. Combined, the two parties got about 49% of the popular vote (compared to 34% for the Conservatives). Honestly, this is a much fairer outcome than many of the recent Canadian elections from a popular vote perspective.
Scheer clearly should not be Prime Minister. Left-of-center parties got more votes than right-of-center parties (if we count Liberal, BQ, NDP, and Green as left-of-center and Conservative + People’s as right-of-center, which I think is reasonable). 11.3 million against 6.4 million, according to CBC’s current numbers, which isn’t even close. I think the strongest inequity is not in Scheer not being PM, but in the first past the post system diluting national third parties (especially the NDP) compared both to the two major national parties, and the BQ (which, as a party with strong regional support, doesn’t have the same kinds of problems, and in fact won 8 more seats than the NDP despite having less than half the popular vote). Canada should use a more proportional electoral method, like Trudeau used to support.
From a cursory search, the MP elected with the highest number of votes appears to be Conservative Mike Lake, elected in Edmonton-Wetaskiwin with 61,709 votes. So I guess that should make him the next Prime Minister of Canada.
Lake also has the highest lead among winning candidates, but not the highest vote percentage by a candidate.
Among the leaders, if that’s what matters, Yves-François Blanchet got 34,902 votes in Beloeil-Chambly and Elizabeth May received 32,326 in Saanich-Gulf Islands. Therefore, they both have a greater claim to becoming the next Prime Minister than Trudeau or Scheer.
The Canadian system is fairer than the USA system, can you imagine a winner take all system by province? That’s why people hate the Electoral College.
There aren’t a huge number of Canadians on this board, but there’s a fair few – probably enough for an effective survey sample. Did any of the Canadians who voted in this election consider the merits and platforms of the people running to be their MP, and then considered the merits and platforms of the party leaders, and then chose an MP from a different party than your preferred party leader?
Yep. Here, knock yourself out Canada Election 2019
I can safely say that most people vote party but a considerable number focus on the local MP, especially when there’s no clear preference. But so what? You can’t be Prime Minister unless you have the votes in parliament. So your question in the OP is nonsensical and I have a hard time believing someone living in the UK doesn’t already know that.
I did. I voted for a different party that my preferred winner. Although not so much due to platform, but due to the First Past the Post system all but requiring strategic voting. I voted for the party in second place locally in hopes of denying the party in first place locally a seat since my preferred party was in distant third place locally.
Just checking – have you moved on from the terrible idea you proposed in the OP?
Yes. Me, for instance.
I haven’t proposed anything. I believe Trudeau won the 2018 Canada election under the established Canadian electoral system. I believe Trump won the 2016 US election under the established US electoral system. Many posters here, probably dozens, were outraged after the 2016 US election at their view of the unfairness of a country’s leader not being the candidate who won the popular vote. I’m just curious if anyone will view the similar Canadian result as being similarly unfair.
Regarding the different government systems, Canada’s going to have a minority government whether it’s led by Trudeau or Scheer. Generally, a minority government means the leader has to govern by consensus, and has a reined-in political agenda. Trudeau might be less limited because the NDP will probably be willing to support his agenda. But that doesn’t mean that Scheer couldn’t pursue a centrist pragmatic agenda. Scheer’s party won the popular vote. If you believe that the winner of the popular vote deserves to be the executive, regardless of the established electoral system, then shouldn’t you believe Scheer should be Canada’s Prime Minister?
There is no possible universe in which winning 6.1 million votes out of 17.9 million cast means winning the popular vote. That’s 34%, just a hair over a third of the votes. Get real.