The 2015 federal election won’t be the last fought under the first-past-the-post electoral system after all.
Despite promises by Justin Trudeau, the governing Liberals are staying with the same system that has elected MPs for Canada’s 150 years.
Trudeau said last week there’s no consensus on what type of electoral system Canada should adopt if it’s not the existing system, in which the candidate in each riding with the largest number of votes wins.
Former Conservative candidate Mike Murray says both Trudeau and Liberal Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Dan Ruimy should be accountable for breaking that promise.
“You have to hold your politicians to what they promised. Dan Ruimy ran on a promise that this would be the last first-past-the-post [election],” Murray said.
Murray said the Liberals promised electoral reform as a way of attracting progressive voters away from the NDP and Green parties.
He said both the Liberals and Conservatives recently won power with only about 39 per cent of the popular vote behind them.
Adopting a preferential or proportional representation type of system could have put both parties out of power.
“You did make a promise. You broke it, clearly,” Murray said.
Ruimy was elected as part of the Liberal wave that swept across Canada, turfing the Conservatives after a decade in power.
“Our MP didn’t get elected because he was a nice guy, although he might be. He was elected on Trudeau’s platform,” Murray said.
“They’re really giving us some good material for 2019.”
He said that the Conservatives had been pushing for a national referendum on the issue and that 60 per cent of the population favoured a referendum.
Murray, now executive assistant for Conservative MP Ed Fast, said he favours the first-past-the-post system, in which the candidate with the largest number of votes wins.
“We have had stable government for the last 150 years.”
In recent years, B.C. voters have twice turned down reforming the electoral system, although the first proposed change received a 58 per cent favourable vote, short of the 60 required.
Ruimy said the Liberals made an “exhaustive” effort to consult Canadians on the issue. It would be irresponsible for the Liberals to change the electoral system if there wasn’t a broad consensus on what system to adopt.
“To authentically consult, you must be willing to act on what you hear, even if it’s not what you expected to hear. And in terms of the next election, as an MP, I don’t focus my energy on re-election. I focus on being the best advocate for our community that I can be,” he said by e-mail.
He didn’t say whether he favours any particular type of electoral system.
Proportional voting involves having a system in which the number or type of politicians elected represent the actual voting proportions.
Green party candidate Peter Tam agreed, that it was a broken election promise. The Special Committee on Parliamentary Reform had been working for a long time on the issue, only to have it cancelled.
Many Liberals were upset, as well, he added. He said that not being able to find a consensus on what type of system to consider was an excuse.
However, there are a few online petitions underway calling for electoral reform, one of which is done by Fair Vote Canada, which Tam represents in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge.