Election reformers protest on Trudeau hypocrisy on Election reform

[ChadMcGoatMan]

[URL="http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-lets-keep-electoral-reform-on-the-table"]http://montrealgazette.com/opinion/opinion-lets-keep-electoral-reform-on-the-table[/URL]

[QUOTE]
So, Justin Trudeau has cancelled the electoral reform project, dismissing the issue as not important at this time.

He has broken the hearts of many interested, proactive, idealistic Canadians who put their faith in his promise, in his vision for a new Canada. It appears that crass political calculations have overtaken and over-ruled his pledge for better government.

This decision will come back to haunt him.

Trudeau’s promise of electoral reform was a beacon to progressive Canadians. The issue helped him sway potential NDP voters to his camp. Trudeau donned the cape of progressive politics when he needed it for his campaign.

A government that rules as a majority when it has a minority of the popular vote is not democratic. Our first-past-the-post system disenfranchises many Canadians. People do not see their votes materialize in Parliament. Whole regions that voted for a party other than the winner find themselves shut out of power. Trudeau promised to change the current system.

During the campaign, the Liberals gleefully pounded the NDP on another issue related to vote count — remember the Liberal stand that a pre-requisite for sovereignty for Quebec would be that option’s winning well over 50 per cent of the vote? Yet Trudeau is now content to continue a parliamentary system where governments rule after winning less than 40 per cent of the popular vote.

The Montreal Gazette, in its recent editorial acquiescing to Trudeau’s drama (“Right call on how we vote,” Feb. 4), stated that the country needs a strong government, even if it has a minority of the votes.

The fact is, governments, no matter how constructed, want to act with resolve. The mixed-member proportional representation system yields more parliamentary cooperation and better representation in Parliament. Somehow Trudeau, who favoured the preferential ballot system, has portrayed proportional representation as a bad thing! Disappointingly, so has the Gazette.

A made-in-Canada proportional representation system could have been embarked upon, with gradual improvements over the years. It could have accounted for regionalism and other considerations that might worry skeptics about it. Much is being made of Trudeau having to work with Trump; why would working with democratically elected Canadians be such a problem for him?

No consensus on electoral reform? Trudeau could have said that ranked ballot or preferential vote system was an all-or-none proposition for him and the Liberal party. When he didn’t get it, he picked up the marbles, left the game, and left many people bewildered. In the 2015 federal election, a majority of Canadians voted for electoral reform: the NDP, the Liberals and Green Party were all in favour of it.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1440943-canadians-protest-liberals-broken-electoral-reform-promise-across-the-country"]http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1440943-canadians-protest-liberals-broken-electoral-reform-promise-across-the-country[/URL]

[QUOTE]TORONTO — Protesters staged demonstrations across Canada Saturday to attack the governing Liberals' decision to abandon their promise of electoral reform.

Hundreds of people turned out to the Toronto protest, some holding signs critical of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and demanding proportional representation.

Trudeau repeatedly promised to get rid of the first-past-the-post voting system in time for the 2019 election, both during his campaign in the last election and again as prime minister.

But earlier this month, he announced that electoral reform would not be part of the mandate of newly-appointed Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould.

Erich Vogt said he comes from Germany — a country that's had proportional representation for decades. He said he had hoped to see Trudeau bring in a similar system in Canada.

"I wanted to believe him, and I did," he said. "I am very disappointed."

"People feel that they have been cheated. Politicians walk back on their words," Vogt added. "And Mr. Trudeau should know that we will not take this sitting down. That we will stand up, and we will march, and we will be visible and we will be loud. And we will remind him that promises are to be kept."[/QUOTE]

[pentium]

He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't on that one. Either the public would rip him apart or the Conservatives would.

[Archangel125]

I can agree with this. I'm glad Trudeau's leading this country, but I really, really hoped more would be done for election reform.

[Killer Monkey]

[QUOTE=pentium;51822988]He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't on that one. Either the public would rip him apart or the Conservatives would.[/QUOTE]

Isn't the whole point of majority government that he shouldn't have to worry about what the conservatives think?

[fruxodaily]

the faster countries scrap FPTP the better, its such a stupid system