LETTER

Electoral reform?

 

During the 2015 election, Justin Trudeau said “the 2015 election will be the last under first-past-the-post voting system”.  A special all-party committee heard from Canadians across the country. The committee’s report indicated an "overwhelming majority" of those they spoke to were in favour of proportional representation. The committee awaits a formal government response but the ruling Liberals already made their views known via the Liberal (minority) section of the report.

As the report was released, the minister responsible chided the committee for not doing the work they were supposed to do. The Liberals on the committee released their (minority) report, saying the process was not legitimate, more study is needed, and we cannot possibly have electoral reform until after the next federal election.

The Liberals benefited from their promise to end the current system of voting. They again heard from Canadians after the election, who said overwhelmingly they want electoral reform in the form of proportional representation. Their response has essentially been, “Nice to hear from you, but we will think about it some more. There is no political leader who can challenge Trudeau, so we will benefit from the first-past-the-post once more in 2019, and then consider it after our re-election.”

Can we scrape up enough money to buy a bite to eat with Justin, and try to influence the government’s response?

Michael P. Macdonald
Aylmer