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Why can a party win more legislative seats than its share of the popular vote in a winner-take-all system?

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Map of Canada displaying the results of the 2008 federal election by province and territory, with regions shaded to indicate the leading party's share of the popular vote: blue for Conservative, red for Liberal, light blue for Bloc Quebecois, and orange for New Democratic Party. Each area is labeled with the number of seats won by each party, and a legend at the bottom summarizes national seat totals for each party. — election Canada's 2008 federal election results.

In a winner-take-all system, a party can win more legislative seats than its share of the popular vote because these systems typically rely on single-member constituencies where only the candidate with the most votes (a plurality) or a majority wins the seat.12

Because these formulas do not distribute seats in proportion to the total popular vote, they tend to reward the strongest party disproportionately while handicapping weaker parties. If a party’s support is spread thinly across many districts, it may receive a significant percentage of the national vote but fail to win a plurality in any individual constituency, resulting in few or no seats. Conversely, if a party’s support is regionally concentrated, it can secure seats more efficiently.1

Ultimately, because votes cast for losing candidates in each district do not contribute to a party's seat count, the system can result in a party winning a majority of seats in the legislature even if it receives only a minority of the total national vote.2