Liberals keep final say in revamping Canadian elections

Justin Trudeau to make good on promise that the election that gave him his majority would be the last under the first-past-the-post system. Liberals dominate committee that will recommend changes.

Thestar.com
May 11, 2016
By Alex Boutilier

The Liberal government will retain the final say on reforming how Canadians elect members of Parliament.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef announced Wednesday MPs will soon begin studying changes to Canada’s election system.

The government intends to strike an all-party committee to meet over the summer and fall, and recommend changes by Dec. 1.

But because most of the members of the committee are Liberals, the government will retain control over its work and recommendations.

Monsef told reporters she hopes the committee members, including those from her own party, will put “partisan interests aside.”

“This is not about us; this is not about what’s good for one party over another,” Monsef said. “This is about what’s in the best interest of Canadian democracy.”

If that multi-party approach can be achieved, it wasn’t clear from the reception Monsef’s proposal got in the House of Commons Wednesday.

Opposition critics accused the Liberals of “stacking the deck” on the first major overhaul of the electoral system in modern Canadian history.

“When you change the rules of democracy, everyone should have a say ... Does the prime minister have so little faith in Canadians that he thinks Liberals can change what every vote means in this country without taking it to the people in a referendum?” asked Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded that he found the Conservatives’ criticism “a bit rich,” given the widely criticized changes they made to election rules in 2014.

“Canadians heard loudly and clearly that we made the commitment that this was going to be the last election held under the first-past-the-post system,” Trudeau said.

“Canadians also supported us with a majority, and are expecting us to deliver on promises that we gave.”

Canada’s first-past-the-post system can give one party a majority of seats in the House of Commons without convincing a majority of Canadians to vote for that party.

Both the Conservatives in 2011, under former prime minister Stephen Harper, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in 2015 were able to secure commanding majorities with under 40 per cent of the popular vote.

Opposition critics argued that, if the Liberals think the current system is flawed, they should not being using it to give themselves a majority on the committee that’s working to change it.

“To say that there’s a false majority, and these false majorities are the problem, and, then, as your first step, construct a committee that is representative of that false majority, is not walking the talk,” said Nathan Cullen, the NDP’s democratic reform critic.

The Conservatives maintain that any fundamental change on how Canadians elect their representatives deserves a national referendum.

The New Democrats prefer a system of proportional representation, where the parties’ seat count approximates the popular vote. They proposed an all-party committee where the Liberals would still have the most members, but would not have a majority of the votes.