Canadians Won’t Forget Trudeau’s Broken Promise on Electoral Reform
[ https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/02/04/C ... ign=040217 ]
Perceptions of lies and untrustworthiness will be hard to shake off in the long term.
By Claudia Chwalisz , | iPolitics February 4, 2017
Claudia Chwalisz is a consultant at the UK-based reputation and strategy consultancy Populus and a Crook Public Service Fellow at the University of Sheffield. She is the author of The People’s Verdict: Adding Informed Citizen Voices to Public Decision-making, and The Populist Signal: Why Politics and Democracy Need to Change. This column first appeared on iPolitics.
( Trudeau electoral reform cartoon )
In his mandate letter to the new Minister of Democratic Institutions, Karina Gould, Justin Trudeau told the nation that he was breaking one of his key election promises: “Changing the electoral system will not be in your mandate.”
Blaming a lack of consensus on reform despite extensive consultations, Trudeau claimed that it would be harmful to Canada’s stability to pursue reform or a referendum on the issue. In question period, he added, “I’m not going to do something that is wrong for Canadians just to tick off a box on an electoral platform.”
His other comments implied that now that Canadians had a government with which they were happy, they were less interested in changing the system. But Trudeau’s remarks fly in the face of the truth.
The All-Party Parliamentary Committee which was tasked with recommending a way forward on reform said that “overwhelming majority” of submissions by almost 200 electoral experts and by thousands of Canadians were in favour of proportional representation. The committee itself recommended the government design a new system of proportional representation and gauge public support through a referendum.
In terms of wider public opinion, a recent Ekos poll [ http://www.ekospolitics.com/index.php/2 ... -reform-2/ ] found that 43 per cent of Canadians said proportional representation would be the best option for Canada (higher than for any other option) and 33 per cent said it would be second best. The same survey found that 59 per cent of people think the Liberals should deliver on their promise.
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[ https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2017/02/04/C ... ign=040217 ]