Since 2016, the argument for getting rid of the electoral college has become stronger and stronger. Donald Trump, of course, was elected with more than the 270 electoral votes needed, however, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Several Democrats and Liberals have been calling for the abolition of the electoral college. They claim it's unfair and does not represent who the people actually voted for. Now for some history, the winner of the electoral college has lost the popular vote only four times: in 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. The electoral college was put into place by the Founding Fathers as a compromise between the election of the president by a vote in Congress, or by popular vote. Throughout our nation's history, there have been several attempts to get rid of the electoral college. They actually voted on it in Congress in 1969 and 1977.

After 2016, more Democrats supported getting rid of the electoral college than years past, and more Republicans opposed this idea. If you're a political junkie like me, you like all kinds of politics. On October 21st, the Canadians had a federal election to see who would govern for the next four years. The race was especially close, with Liberals and Conservatives polling about even with each other for much of the campaign. In Canada, they have a parliamentary style of government where whoever has the most seats wins, and the party's leader becomes Prime Minister. Kind of similar to the House of Representatives and the Speaker of the House here in the U.S.

In the election, Liberals won the most seats with 157 (which is below the 170 needed for a majority) and the other major party, the Conservatives, won 121 seats. There are other smaller political parties in the country that received seats. The Liberals got the most seats, however, they did not get the most overall votes. The Conservatives got over 200,000 more votes than the Liberals. This is only the second time in Canada's history that this has happened.

After this phenomenon has happened to our neighbors to the north, it makes you wonder, what does this mean for our election process? Will the support for electoral college abolition grow? Our election is just over a year away, and after the Canadian election, there are lessons to be learned from them.