Cullen ‘Insulted’ by Minister’s Response to Electoral Reform Report
Ottawa, Ont. – An all-party committee on electoral reform has delivered its report in Ottawa – now its up to the governing Liberals on whether it follows through on the recommendations.
The report recommends replacing Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system with a system that more closely reflects voting results, and holding a referendum to give Canadians their say on the matter.
NDP Democratic Reform Critic Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley) and Deputy critic Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont-La Petite Patrie) showcase electoral reform final report at press conference – photo submitted
But if today’s response from Liberal Minister of Democratic Reform Maryam Monsef is any indication, the government won’t be acting on it anytime soon.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP and committee co-chair Nathan Cullen said the minister told them they “had failed.”
“I’ve been through a lot of question periods and I’ve heard a lot of stupid things but I’ve never heard something this insulting before because every time a committee of any kind reports to the government – the government says thank you, I’m going to read it,” he says.
“This was a 300-page report, she hadn’t even read it before she said you failed, you didn’t do your job. That’s incredibly degrading.”
The government created the committee earlier this year after it had promised to do away with Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system during last year’s federal election campaign.
Cullen said it’s disappointing considering the committee spent four months traveling the country, listening to thousands of Canadians on the issue.
Highlights of the Committee’s findings include:
- 88 per cent of expert witnesses and 87 per cent of the public testimony before the committee called for the government to adopt a proportional voting system.
- The committee also recommended that the government should implement financial incentives for political parties to nominate more women.
- The committee held close to 50 meetings, in every province and territory, and heard from nearly 200 expert witnesses. Tens of thousands of Canadians participated in the consultation process.
- The committee recommended not going forward with mandatory or online voting at this time.
Despite the minister’s cool response, Cullen says he and the committee won’t throw in the towel.
“We’re dedicated, we’re absolutely not giving up.”
Comments
She should have said epic fail. It is an epic fail and I called him on that last week. He let down a whole nation for probably another generation.
Trudeau is the PM and not Cullen. For anything to pass they had to dovetail with what Trudeau wanted. He declared at the outset he wanted a transferable ballot because he could do that without a constitutional crisis. Cullen went all partisan annd didn’t even give the idea the time of day. All he wanted was proportional representation which would require constitutional thresholds to implement as it changes the house from one of geographical representation to party affiliated representation.
Cullen still does not get it. He turns out to be so set in his partisanship that he believes only in his agenda. He blew it big time. Canada will never have proportional rep probably ever because we would never get all the provinces on board to change the constitution. We should have taken the transferable ballot and at least had majority elected MP’s. It shows that the nod do not believe they can be relevant enough to get elected by majority votes and that says a lot about them and their failures to connect with reality.
What part of ALL PARTY committee don’t you get? Cullen didn’t write or come to the conclusions on his own. There was representation from every party on there that arrived at those recommendations. You are one to talk about partisanship with the nonsense you post.
Trudeau gave them a chance to show that they can all work together for the betterment of the country on an issue that should be bipartisan. It was a chance for all the members to show they could govern for all Canadians and not just their own pet politics.
Instead the ndp went rouge by pushing only the Proportional Representation agenda in all their meetings.
Rather than looking at all the options, the left side of the committee went hard for PR, ignored the constitutional issues, and didn’t provide any specifics of what they mean by a PR system… failing even to state a required threshold a party would require to be allocated seats from their list of candidates. Is it 2%, 5%, 10% or 25%? Nobody knows because the ndp won’t say until they have authority to implement a PR system.
Naturally the conservatives just say lets have a referendum and stop this ndp shenanigans at the ballot box.
The truth is, with no exaggeration, implementing a PR system would be the death of our nation. A large culturally and geographically diverse nation like Canada would never survive a PR system.
Lets say they set the PR threshold at 5%, or even 10%.
Rather than the bloc being set back to two seats they would hold nearly 10% of the legislature in perpetuity with their unelected list candidates free to undermine the nation without any recourse by the voters directly.
Reform or something in its place would take another 10% of the seats for an independent west. Islam would have their own adherents of sharia law appointed by list. The liberal party of Canada would become an Ontario only party in the effect of their policy for votes from the majority. Regional parts of the country would be shut out from any political influence unless they unite under one party. Those that want to separate and join the USA would have their own list candidates to appoint. The green party might still be relevant, but they would be competing with the ndp, and maybe an LGBQ party based on sexual liberation…. and on and on the divisions of Canadian society would be sewed.
We could easily have 7-8 parties in parliament… each out for their own partisan interests and to hell with the nation and the silent majority. Canada would never survive the onslaught from within. The ndp would be ever the opportunist hoping to divide their opponents with ever more splinter movements; weakening with each divide; and assuming more and more power as a minority interest in governing the nation against the will of the majority.
Whereas a transferable ballot simply keeps all the existing legislative ridings and ensures that all MP’s are elected with a majority of the vote. Real democracy made up of the non partisan consensus of its citizens and not the appointments of various political meme machines.
Eagleone is right.
The opposition controlled the committee. Their job (as they see it) isn’t to make government work, but to make it look bad. That’s what they did–or tried to do.
This committee has smart people that understand the constitution. They also had a lot of resources at their disposal–people that could advise them. They knew that proportional voting would never work without a constitutional change. Yet they recommended it because they knew the government would never be able to implement it.
What a waste of time and money. I thought fairly highly of Cullen before this.
Anytime you change the way people are governed or the way your representatives are elected, you should go to referendum. Cullen and the NDP are against holding a referendum to decide on electoral reform. Unless the voters get a say, maintain status quo.
I guess you missed the part in paragraph 2 where they recommended holding a referendum so Canadians could have their say. :rolleyes:
So what is stopping Trudeau from pushing his preferred “transferable ballot” through parliament and the senate? It most certainly did not stop the Harper Government on numerous occasions from passing legislation, just insert the changes for a “transferable ballot” somewhere in a 1,200 page Omnibus Bill, use his party majority to pass it, and presto change-o, Canada has a new system of electoral reform voting! So what’s the big deal here? Oh yeah, we now have someone ethical and fair for a Prime Minister!
Ethical and fair?
Certainly you can’t be talking about “liar, liar, modest deficit, pants on fire” Justin?
And you certainly can’t be talking about the “I love ruthless dictators” Justin?
I suppose that I should rephrase that to read that you certainly can’t be talking about “I love TYRANTS” Justin! After all, earlier this week the Miami Herald quoted one of Fidel’s own daughters referring to her father not as a dictator, but rather a TYRANT!
Ethical and Fair? Haha Peeps, best joke of the day!
Watch Ted Cruz blast Trudeau for praising Fidel Castro: ‘Tell that to the people in the prisons’
ht tp://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/watch-ted-cruz-blast-trudeau-for-praising-fidel-castro-tell-that-to-the-people-in-the-prisons
Watch U.S.A. Senator Ted Cruz denounce world leaders, including our very own Justin, who were “whitewashing Castro’s decades of abuses! It starts around the 2 minute mark of his address!
And now to get back to the Electoral Reform Report!
From the National Post today, watch Question Period in the House as another of Justin’s inept Ministers makes a fool of themselves! It’s hilarious!
VIDEO: Maryam Monsef vs everyone in Question Period as she attacks MPs who worked on electoral reform
ht tp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/video-maryam-monsef-vs-everyone-in-question-period-as-she-attacks-mps-who-worked-on-electoral-reform
@Hart Guy
Nobody gives a s*** about what Ted Cruz says, including his fellow Americans.
@ Hahaha, well, all of Canada and the whole world has listened to what our idiot in Ottawa has recently said. Justin has now firmly solidified his position as the village idiot!
You must be so proud!
@Hart Guy
Me? I couldn’t care less if Trudeau made an ass out of himself by eulogizing Castro. The world didn’t stop turning because Trudeau decided to kiss Castro’s dead ass.
Do the words ” just watch me ” ring a bell .
why would they want to change something that would be to their advantage to leave alone.
Now Monsef says that she is going to mail out 15 million postcards to consult all households on electoral reform:
“Every Canadian household all 15 million are going to receive a postcard in the mail inviting them to be part of the conversation and before we introduce any legislation to the House we’re going to make sure that we hear from as many Canadians as possible.”
“I come from Peterborough riding, and I know that not every Canadian has access to the Internet and that every Canadian feels comfortable online.”
“To that end what the postcards will include is a telephone number for Canadians to call, those in rural and remote communities, that I’ve heard from them clearly, will have an opportunity to have their say in the conversation…”
So, she’s going to be awful busy is even 10% of the 15 million households try to phone her with their opinion! I look forward to receiving her phone number!
I hope you do phone her and thank her for standing up for rural voters that want to keep their local MLA’s.
As a politician one must have a thick skin. Just because things do not go the way one expects them to go right away, one must not flip out and burn bridges by resorting to whining about stupidity and feeling insulted beyond belief. How much co-operation does one get after such a public outburst?
Well, for the last year and a half we have witnessed daily outbursts from the tweeting orangutan south of the 49th….and he won 30 of 50 states.
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