Justin Trudeau’s government has abandoned his 2015 election commitment to reform Canada’s voting system.
A letter given to the new Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould released on Wednesday said that “changing the electoral system will not be in your mandate.”
“A clear preference for a new electoral system, let alone a consensus, has not emerged,” Trudeau wrote. “Furthermore, without a clear preference or a clear question, a referendum would not be in Canada’s interest.”
St. Albert MP Michael Cooper said that he is pleased that the government decided to not go ahead with reforming Canada’s electoral system.
“It’s good to see the Liberals took our advice and parked electoral reform,” Cooper said. “It was not a priority of Canadians. That was the feedback that I received and members of parliament across Canada received.”
During the 2015 election, Trudeau promised the federal campaign would be the last under the first-past-the-post system. The Liberals planned to have the issue sorted out by the 18-month mark of their mandate, which is May 4, 2017.
The government spent months travelling across Canada and engaging with Canadians to research what type of electoral system they preferred.
MPs conducted town halls in their home ridings to get feedback from their constituents while a House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform travelled across the country to engage with Canadians.
The special committee announced its final report in December with a majority of the members suggesting a change to proportional representation. The group also recommended the government take the issue to the citizens with a referendum, asking them to choose between a form of proportional representation and the status quo.
In December the mydemocracy.ca website launched a survey about the Canadian political system and the preferred values for a new electoral system.
“I’m not here to endorse mydemocracy.ca,” Cooper said. “There was legitimate criticism about how that survey was worded. Nonetheless, one thing was clear, there was no consensus to change the electoral system and there was no consensus because most Canadians are satisfied with the electoral system.”
The results of the electoral reform survey were released in late January and showed that Canadians generally are satisfied with Canada’s democracy but found little consensus on the other topics addressed in the survey.
“Though satisfaction does not necessarily preclude a desire for reforming the electoral system, a majority of Canadians (67 per cent) report being somewhat or very satisfied with the way democracy works in Canada,” the report said.
In the House of Commons, parties were deeply divided on the issue. Trudeau and the Liberals were strongly in favour of a ranked system, while the Green Party and NDP showed a preference for proportional representation. The Conservative Party wanted to see the issue put away and have the government focus on other problems, such as job creation and the economy.
“It certainly took up a good part of the year,” Cooper said.
Despite the fact that the survey pointed to a general satisfaction with Canada’s voting system, many Canadians are dissatisfied the issue has been dropped. A petition circulating to call on the Liberal party to reverse their decision to scrap electoral reform has garnered more than 28,000 signatures.
