Liberals will ‘bake’ own election reform preferences in Cabi

[Oscar]

Liberals will ‘bake’ own election reform preferences in Cabinet, says MP Rempel

[ https://www.hilltimes.com/2016/04/02/li ... mpel/55887 ]

The Liberals ran in the last election on a campaign that the 2015 election would be the last using the first-past-the-post system.

QUOTE: "The Liberal government’s budget last month included an allotment of $10.7-million to be spent from 2016 to 2020 for “outreach” to gather views and promote changes after the committee begins its work.”

By TIM NAUMETZ April 2, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his majority government will impose their own preference for a federal electoral system to replace Canada’s current first-past-the-post election method regardless of the views they encounter in House of Commons hearings, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel says.

Ms. Rempel (Calgary Nose Hill, Alta.) made the prediction despite arguments she made in a Broadbent Institute debate Saturday that Canada should retain its current voting system—where majority governments are most often formed by parties that win less than 50 per cent of the votes—rather than move to a proportional election system that would widen representation in the House of Commons.

As expected at a policy summit and debate forum hosted by the left-leaning Broadbent Institute, whose founder Ed Broadbent and the party he led for 14 years have long called for a proportional representation system rather than the winner-take-all voting method Canada has had since Confederation, Ms. Rempel and high-profile National Post columnist Tasha Kheiriddin failed to win the day as they verbally dueled with another prominent National Post columnist, Andrew Coyne, and former PCO clerk Alex Himelfarb.

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[ https://www.hilltimes.com/2016/04/02/li ... mpel/55887 ]