Fight for Electoral Reform Continues
Prince George, B.C. – Canadians are gathering on Parliament Hill and in towns and cities across the country today to show their support for electoral reform and to voice opposition to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to renege on one of his key promises during the 2015 federal election campaign.
Liberal leader Trudeau repeated the promise from one end of the country to the other that 2015 would be the last First-Past-The-Post federal election and that the Liberals would introduce electoral reform legislation within 18 months. He sent an all-party electoral reform committee across the country to speak with and gather the opinions of Canadians on their preferences for a new electoral system and his government issued a confusing survey on the issue which failed to ask the basic question, what kind of system do you favour?
Then on February 1st, 2017 the Prime Minister completely abandoned the promise to replace first-past-the-post. And that leads to today’s National Day of Action for a Democracy, called to rally support for electoral reform and to tell members of parliament that they are expected to live up to their word.
Events are planned in several communities besides Ottawa, including Victoria, Nelson, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Orillia, Kingston, Guelph, the Waterloo region, Wolfville, Montreal, Antigonish and St. John’s.
There is no event planned in Prince George at this time, however organizers in other Canadian cities including Vancouver (Feb 26th) are putting together similar events later this month.
Meantime, Trudeau’s promise that “we are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system” and pledging to introduce legislation to enact electoral reform within 18 months of forming government remains posted under the “Commitments” section on the Liberal Party of Canada website, which can be found at www.liberal.ca
And a federal NDP petition which seeks support for proportional representation has now gathered close to 100,000 signatures. You can find that petition at www.ndp.ca/keep-fighting-fair-voting
Comments
I doubt if these gatherings will get any traction. Electoral reform was a move by the left to try and ensure that they got into power and to dilute the power of the Conservatives. However once Trudeau got a majority he was no longer interested in working with the NDP and the Greens. So the air is out of the balloon and we return to the status quo.
Not quite. Trudeau was still interested in changing the electoral system, the problem for him is neither the all party committee nor the questionnaire came up with the kind of reform he wanted, the weighted ballot system, one that would almost guarantee that the Liberals would always be in power with a majority. The would also most likely be in power with prop rep, but most often a minority. So the next best to weighted ballot (in Trudeau’s view) because it’s more likely to give him a majority, is first past the post.
Get over it. Electoral reform is dead as it should be. Reminds me of the people who can’t get over the fact Trump got elected.
Or the people who can’t get over the fact that Trudeau was elected. But remember what happened to a couple of politicians in recent years who made promises for the purpose of getting elected and lost their jobs because of breaking those promises.
Don’t make excuses for Trudeau. Almost like those who make excuses for Trump.
See what I did there? ;)
Kind of the opposite, that is why Trudeau got elected. Elected on lies, prince charming.
The mail-in form questions were unmistakably clear. After answering all of them there was no doubt about what the individual’s choice was, leave things as they are now or bring about change.
Goverments make changes all the time, often due to newly arising circumstances, like the election of Trump which nobody predicted at the time.
Why can’t the NDP accept the fact that it did not win the last election? It can make itself more acceptable to the voters and win the way all the other elections were won!
You mean lie like crazy?
No, not at all! Election reform was just one item on the platform, although a very important one for sure! I for one are not disappointed as a I was less than lukewarm to the whole idea. If some other party wants to lie like crazy – good luck with that – it can do so at its own peril.
Not re-electing a government that was found to have been in contempt of parliament (a first) and that went to prorogation twice in order to hang on to power was a good enough result for the majority that bothered to vote.
Doesn’t really matter! A waste of time. Bottom line is that people can’t be bothered to vote, the more complex you make it the more people will be disinterested! I always vote because it is my right, but I sometimes wonder if I am wasting my time, because regardless the east decides the way the west will go and how much taxes they raise! Burns me up sometimes!
People don’t vote when their choice means nothing or they don’t have a first choice that represents their views. This is what first past the post bets on… It empowers corrupt politics run from party central and the PMO office rather than elected representatives from a representative election.
If one knows they can vote their first choice and still have their ballot count then more people would vote. Not only that more people would run.
The first BC Socred government came from nowhere to elected government party because they were the second choice of liberals and conservatives and people trusted their candidates on the second ballot choice. That was the best thing that ever happened to BC and enabled the development of the rural parts of the province implementing the free enterprise essentials like BCHydro, Provincial highways, and BCRail for the north. The scores won the seats because they could attract good candidates to run for them under a system of voting that was fair to all candidates irregardless of party affiliation.
Good comments all.
Cheers
The centrist politicians need to speak up and get organized for a centrist based political system otherwise the fringe parties of identity politic will eventually get their way and fracture the country with proportional representation.
Proportional representation would be the end of Canada. It would guarantee separatist politicians in parliament for more than one party, it would put racist based parties in parliament, sharia law proponents and every other subversive praversion that can get 5% in the election.
What we need is MPs in parliament that don’t owe total allegiance to their party, but rather to their constituents. MS’s that need to appeal to the middle class majority in order to get elected by a majority of voters through a transferable ballot that enables the best polititicians who can gain bipartisan support of their piers and political opponents as the second or third choice as well as the first choice on the ballot.
If we want democracy in Canada then we need centrists politicians to stand up irregardless of party politics and stand up for majority elected MP’s and against party controlled list candidates.
IMO
Sorry for the grammar and spelling… Had to beat the iPad resets….
I thought I smelled fear and hyperbole, and tracked it to it’s source. Yup this is change everyone, therefore we must fear it!!! If we change our voting system we will all be doomed, DOOMED, I tell you!
LOL… did you know 91 other countries in the world use proportional representation, or some form of it? Yup, counties like; Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, The European Union, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Hmmm… we don’t see these counties spiraling into chaos, do we?
No, but we don’t see any of those countries with governments most of their citizens like any more than most of us do here with ours elected the way it is either.
Well get your facts straight. Ireland uses the transferable ballot, so does Australia for its senate seats.
The other countries using proportional rep are well on their way to being failed states of a globalist empire and are nations in name only. Switzerland is a canon system, and most others are just small states with no real regional component to them.
You do realize there is no such word as “irregardless”, right?
I agree with the meaning of your first two paragraphs. The PM explained again why he changed his mind after re-evaluating the issue in view of the changed political situation in North America, perhaps even globally, considering the impending Brexit and the specter of rising nationalism in Europe. Politicians who are incapable or fearful of changing their mind may be way worse than the ones who are brave enough to do it.
Trudeau seems to be a lot like Trump, he seems to love the attention the press is giving him, good or bad.
They both seem to be the type that the more they get criticized the more it becomes “poor me” ands everyone else is “delusional” or “ignorant”
Both elected first past the post… That’s what that system rewards.
Good honest politics takes a majority elect system to weed out the snake oil salesmen.
Good honest politics? That is a contradiction in terms.
When sitting as third party minority, the Liberals had no problem banging on the electoral reform drum, and we heard them loud and clear during their election campaign. “If we get elected, this will be the last election using first-past-the-post.”
Fast forward to a Liberal government majority; “Ummm… yeah, we will strike an electoral reform committee, but we Liberals must have a majority say”. Just a minute says the opposition members, that’s not fair, how about we strike a committee with members from parties based on the proportion of popular vote each party received in the last election? Ummm… ok say the Liberals.
Then, when an overwhelming majority of experts and Canadians consulted by the all−party Electoral Reform Committee favoured a proportional voting system, the Liberal government’s response; Ummm… yeah let’s do our own survey where we don’t even ask Canadians whether they want electoral reform change, and furthermore not even ask what type of electoral reform system they prefer. The results of this survey were not unexpectedly pathetic!
Opposition members on the electoral reform committee; “ok we can see you Liberals are uncomfortable with the recommendation for proportional representation, so let’s agree to call a referendum where Canadians get to decide to 1. Keep the first-past-the-post system or 2. Adopt a proportional representational system. Liberal government’s response; Ummm… that would be too confusing, and a much too difficult issue for Canadians to deliberate on. End result: let’s scrap the whole process!!!
Typical zealot can’t even include the voting system his own party uses to select its leader when opining options for Canadians to have as choices to vote on. LOL.
So in peeps world we can only choose between proportional rep and the current failed system. Well two fails don’t make it right. This is why Trudeau had to shut the electoral reform down. Once he opened the door to it the socialists went into overdrive to create the appearance their way was the only way.
Trudeau failed to lead and provide the support for the majority ballot option, nor did he provide any avenue to provide information on the various options. Even his failed web questionair didn’t bother to mention any electoral options. A complete failure of leadership on the most important issue he had before him. On that we can agree.
However the all party committee did not have a majority much less a consensus on the issue of electoral reform, so it’s just propaganda on peeps part for saying that they supported proportional rep… The ndp supported proportional rep and that is all. The conservatives took no position and wanted a referendum on the options. The liberals followed their leader and were oblivious of their role to play. One parties position does not make a committee consensus.
Well the system in the states worked like it was designed by the founders so that the self proclaimed urban elites are unable to rule the land. In the states 80% of the population is crammed into 3% of the land and why should the elites think they are better or have rule over the deplorables as Hillary calls them. Those deplorables are how the elites exist. Rural supplies the energy, raw resources, without, the urban elites would not exist. See the parallel in Canada with the Liberals-urban, thinking they are the elites. The tide is turning.
Those deplorables, amazing.
What a joke. Ya, right, like Trump doesn’t consider himself an elitist.
He is not exactly a regular joe with a blue color job. That’s why it still amazes me that he was able to suck in so many people down there listening to his hogwash. Good thing there are a lot of Americans because if they only had the population of Canada, Darwins laws say they would have been extinct a long time ago.
Bent you really haven’t been paying attention have you, amazing. Gotta love how he shook up the system especially the main stream media all of which was in need of a major shake up. But time will tell but just be critical of what you see in main stream media they are out for blood.
Now that meeting with dear leader and Trump will be interesting. Seems the lib elite have been stratizing for weeks. Dear leader is looking for his big boots, seem to be lost.
Alt Rights like seamutt and eagleone love The Donald.
BH filed for any mining claims yet?
Also you should not watch SNL for your news.
Hmmmm, I’ve tried to post a comment and a link for BH several times from my tablet instead of my Noteboook, but my post doesn’t seem to show up! Not sure if has something to do with my tablet, however I apologize if suddenly several posts show up!
Perhaps it has something to do with what my brother always used to say “It helps to be smarter than the equipment than you are working with”, haha!
Alt right. WTF is that all about. The rantings of a bolshivik looser that wants to be part of a globalist social experiment putting ideology ahead of personal liberty and the rights of a dignified population.
Being human. WTF is that all about. Does it imply that this is somehow unnatural to peeps to be human? that it takes effort to pretend he is normal? It begs the question of what peeps was before he tries to be human?
BH thinks that by tearing down others with names and innuendo… that his views gain credibility? He has a Bolshevik mindset of identity politics and collective punishment of people that have diverse thoughts and views which don’t match his own weird sense of superiority complex. His deme or underlies a sinister side that shows a lack of compassion and dignity for others with whom he communicates with, and yet BH tries to use the values of compassion and dignity of man to promote his viewpoint as if he is the standard barrier, when in fact he often uses the victims of a harsh world for crase political opportunism. His little boy cried wolf routine undermines the important value of words in the English dictionary that he throws around as as a knee jerk response to anyone that doesn’t agree with him… A disgusting perversion of important words that are meant to be reserved for the real evil they represent.
This is a guy that slanders Trump or anyone that supports Trump, but supports Oboma as a fellow bolshivik ideolog. So I guess it’s safe to say using BH logic back at him that he supports the death of a child every 10-minutes in Yeman (a war Obama started), the complete destruction of the mos wealthy country in Africa to the point it’s now a failed state safe haven for all sorts of terrorist groups out to kill the west, or the distruction of Syria by arming the ‘not so moderate Rebels’, or the civil war in Ukraine designed to bring the world into a nuclear conflict with the primary target of his bolshivik horde. A total fool that says up is down and white is black so long as that’s what comes down from party headquarters.
Myself I take no allegance to any political party or ideology and never have. I use my brain and experience and learned knowledge to think for myself. I care not one wit about political terms designed to discriminate and control the thoughts of others. I believe in free enterprise values and democracy and human rights and it all flows from that. I will take sides with or pick on any political party and so it should be of anyone that values their own personal dignity and the responsibility one should take when taking political views.
BH it’s time to grow up and stop with the stupid talk of ad hominem attacks on anyone that doesn’t share your viewpoints. If you want to be a leader than try to act like one for a change.
Talk in America about swapping Trump for Trudeau…in a heartbeat!
Can’t wait to see those two meet. A feminist and a jock, should be interesting.
Wow, what planet have you been living on? Remember the charity boxing match Justin had with Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau who was a three-to-one favourite to win. Brazeau had a background in martial arts and formerly served as a reservist in the Canadian Forces.
Needless to day the referee had to stop the bout half way through the third round after Brazeau received a number of standing eight counts! The outcome of that fight was never in doubt.
ht tps://tinyurl.com/hw278ky
You describe Trump as a “jock”???? LOL!!!
Needless to “say”…
Hmmm…a PM that skis, surfs and jogs meets a golf loving jock sniffer of a president.
An arrogant spoiled brat who held down a part time drama teaching job for a short time. Against someone who is truly out to save his country. The other out to bankrupting his country.
Agreed, someone else gets it.
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