Electoral reform looms for Canada, Justin Trudeau promises

Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau has promised that Monday’s election would be the final one ever conducted using the traditional first-past-the-post system.

Thestar.com
Oct. 21, 2015
By Robert Benzie

Big electoral changes loom for Canada.

Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau has promised that Monday’s election would be the final one ever conducted using the traditional first-past-the-post system.

That means the “winner-takes-all” way Canadian voters have always elected their MPs will be changed in time for the 2019 federal campaign.

“It was one of our commitments that this would be the last election based on this process,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.

“We have much work to do, to consult, to be engaged with Canadians, to study the issue so that upcoming elections are indeed done in a different way,” he said in French.

Trudeau made his comments even though his Liberals won 184 seats in the 338-member Commons - or 54.4 per cent - with just 39.5 per cent of the popular vote.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Elizabeth May’s Green party took one seat - or 0.3 per cent of the Commons - despite attracting 3.4 per cent of the vote.

“Over 9 million Canadians didn’t get to vote in a representative in this election,” said Kelly Carmichael, executive director of Fair Vote Canada, which is advocating for electoral reform and would like to see proportional representation.

If a form of that voting system were in place, Trudeau’s Liberals might have won 134 seats in the Commons, a minority that would have forced them to seek partners for a governing coalition with smaller parties such as the Greens, who would have won 12 seats.

Trudeau has promised that an all-party parliamentary committee will be struck to consider reforms - including proportional representation, ranked ballots, and online and mandatory voting - then make recommendations to the Commons.

“Within 18 months of forming government, we will bring forward legislation to enact electoral reform,” according to a Liberal campaign platform document.

In other words, Canadians should expect to know how they will next cast federal election ballots by May 4, 2017.

“We’re optimistic, we’re very hopeful,” Carmichael said Wednesday, adding Fair Vote Canada would like to see a “task force” of experts and MPs to study options.

But she is confident they will conclude that some type of proportional representation system is the answer because it works in other countries such as Germany, Scotland and New Zealand.

“Absolutely we have to consult with Canadians,” said Carmichael, noting public education to the various benefits of reforms is important.

Indeed, Ontario’s 2007 referendum on adopting a mixed-member proportional representation system was supported by only 36.9 per cent of voters while 63.1 per cent opted for the status quo.

Some blamed that outcome on the limited advertising blitz and confusion among the electorate.

Activist Dave Meslin, who is helping coordinate 123 Ontario, a network of municipal voting reform campaigns, said it was “historic” that the federal Liberals, New Democrats and Greens all made democratic renewal promises.

“The election results show us once again that first-past-the-post gives a really distorted outcome. The seat count does not actually reflect how people voted,” said Meslin, a prominent advocate of ranked ballots.

In such a system, people vote for preferred candidates - 1 for their favourite, 2 for their second choice, 3 for their third and so on - instead of for just one candidate. If no one receives half the No. 1 votes, a run-off is held with the last-place candidate dropping off and second-choice votes allocated to remaining candidates.

Elections results

Liberals - 39.5 per cent of the vote, winning 184 seats (54.4 per cent of the Commons)
Conservatives - 31.9 per cent, winning 99 seats (29.3 per cent of the Commons)
New Democrats - 19.7 per cent, winning 44 seats (13 per cent of the Commons)
Bloc Quebecois - 4.7 per cent, winning 10 seats (3 per cent of the Commons)
Greens - 3.4 per cent, winning one seat (0.3 per cent of the Commons)

If seats were allocated based on a form of proportional representation:

Liberals - 134
Conservatives - 108
New Democrats - 67
Bloc Quebecois - 17
Greens - 12