During the election campaign, Justin Trudeau promised emphatically and repeatedly that 2015 would be the last federal election held under the first-past-the-post system, the system that gave the Conservatives under Stephen Harper a majority in the House of Commons with 39.62 per cent of the popular vote.
But now, after winning a majority in Parliament with 39.5 per cent of the vote, Trudeau and his Liberals are tripping over themselves trying to back-pedal away from that promise.
A Liberal breakfast, it seems, includes a huge helping of waffles. The waffling is not made any more palatable by being covered with a thick layer of syrup in the form of an online electoral-reform survey that seems more concocted to get the answers the Liberals want to hear than the answers Canadians want to give.
Trudeau took a reasonable first step with the formation of an all-party special committee on electoral reform. That committee, dominated by opposition members, released a report last week recommending a new proportional voting system along with a national referendum to gauge public support for it.
But since winning the election, Trudeau and his party have been cooling their ardour for electoral reform. That became obvious when Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef ridiculed the committee鈥檚 report and criticized committee members for not making a specific recommendation for what might replace the current system 鈥� the committee hadn鈥檛 been asked to do that.
The minister apologized for her acerbic comments, but apologies come in different flavours 鈥� there鈥檚 the apology you offer when you accidentally step on someone鈥檚 toe. Less believable is the apology that comes after you deliberately kick someone in the shins.
Canadians hoping for a more open, less partisan democracy in sa国际传媒 will find little reason for optimism in Monsef鈥檚 conduct.
In October, Trudeau said the case for reform was 鈥渓ess urgent鈥� now that Canadians have a government they like 鈥� the Liberals 鈥� even though he came to power with almost the same popular vote that gave Stephen Harper and the Conservatives their majority.
Back-pedalling away from his back-pedalling, the next day he said he was still 鈥渄eeply committed鈥� to reform. And after Monsef鈥檚 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 really mean what I said鈥� apology, the prime minister said: 鈥淓lectoral reform is an issue that is important to me, it鈥檚 important to a whole bunch of Canadians across the country,鈥� but is not one 鈥渢hat every Canadian is involved and aware of, or passionate about.鈥�
Liberal members of the electoral-reform committee are urging Trudeau to break his campaign promise, and it looks as if he鈥檚 leaning that way. There has always been an interest in sa国际传媒 in some form of proportional representation, but that interest is always stronger among parties in opposition than among parties in power.
And now, despite the committee鈥檚 cross-country tour and town-hall meetings (Monsef presided over the one in Victoria), the Liberals have launched an online survey (MyDemocracy.ca) to gauge Canadians鈥� feelings about voting and such. Launched on Dec. 1, it has already stirred up a lot of social-media traffic, not much of it complimentary.
And for good reason. The questions avoid mention of such terms as first-past-the-post, national referendum or electoral reform. If asked in court, these would quickly be labelled leading questions. As one Twitter user said, it鈥檚 a push poll, designed to elicit certain answers.
Trudeau made a rash campaign promise, based on political expediency and not necessarily on the mood of the electorate. He promised to replace the current system, but was vague about what would replace it.
His rashness is coming back to haunt him.
