Liberals accused of trying to skew results of electoral refo

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Liberals accused of trying to skew results of electoral reform consultations

[ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/11 ... sultations ]

By Joan Bryden in News, Politics | November 17th 2016

A leaked draft of an online federal survey on electoral reform to be launched next month has raised suspicions that the Trudeau government is trying to skew the public consultation process to favour the status quo.

The questions in the draft survey, leaked Thursday, are broad and at no point ask respondents for their opinions about specific models of voting systems.

Although the overwhelming majority of experts and Canadians consulted by an all−party committee favour a proportional voting system, the survey does not ask participants if they believe a party’s share of seats in the House of Commons should reflect its share of the popular vote.

Government insiders said the leaked survey was just a field test and the final survey will be quite different.

However, it will still not ask for views on specific voting models, confining itself to exploring the broad principles that Canadians believe should underpin the electoral system.

The Every Voter Counts Alliance, a coalition of groups and individuals who favour proportional representation, obtained the draft survey. The alliance denounced the government for ignoring the testimony before the committee — which is supposed to recommend an alternative to the current first−past−the−post voting system by Dec. 1 — and for asking misleading survey questions aimed at producing "skewed results."

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[ http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/11 ... sultations ]