Trudeau abandons pledge on electoral reform
- Thread starter Locutus
- Start date
Making a dumbass promise then not following through with it will not score points with the canadian voter.
Well it would be, except for the fact that he lied. There was a clear path forward - it wasn't his path but it was there.
As well they should. They were standing up for Canadians who in poll after poll clearly stated that a referendum on electoral reform was necessary.
There's lots of chairs at the Inn
Canadians have better or more priorities for referendums,this is lame
It was fun playing Trudeau's words back on the radio as his new minister claimed they never said what they said....
enjoy kids:
Last election....... - Small Dead Animals
https://www.facebook.com/580CFRA/videos/10154402210477831/
enjoy kids:
Last election....... - Small Dead Animals
https://www.facebook.com/580CFRA/videos/10154402210477831/
Now that the electoral promise fiasco is over and done; we now can wait for the promised improvement to our infrastructure, in short invest on roads, bridges, highways, etc to make cost of doing business easier, sounded like a good plan. The issue is that there has been little money invested towards infrastructure, to-date very little of the billions spent has been allocated to infrastructure, which was a major campaign promise. To date, the economy falls more under impeded than growth, scary really, $113 billion projected debt over the next 5 years, with no mandate to bring it back under control!! This is directly impacting future investments and Canada's future. What about the $8.4 billion going to training and putting our aboriginal in the workforce? According the budget, $15 million only is actually going to skills/employment, where's the rest gone man? Political org. that's where!! Everything seems counterproductive with this gov., just look at the top personal income tax rates, cannot get worst than this one!!
Yup. It's a good thing Trudeau backtracked on this one. I don't know why some people are mad
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government is backing away from a promise on electoral reform by claiming they didn’t get enough votes in the past federal election to reform the current first-past-the-post system.
“I think we need to remember that as a result of our first-past-the-post system, only 39.5% of people voted for us,” explained Trudeau in an interview with Le Devoir. “This simply isn’t a sufficient mandate to reform the system that produced this outcome.”
“Now I did say that the 2015 federal election would be the last election that uses first-past-the-post, but I was expecting at least half or two-thirds of Canadians to vote for me and my party. I should have crushed Saskatchewan and Alberta with 75% of the vote, but – again, due to factors out of our control at the time – could only muster five seats.”
Trudeau also noted that many of his MPs didn’t receive a majority of votes in their riding as a justification for backing away from his promise.
“Just look at Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef. She only won her riding by less that 44% of the vote! How can a Minister have the legitimacy of leading the change of our electoral system when 56% of her constituents voted against her?”
The Prime Minister added that the only way for his government to gain legitimacy to carry out a new voting system, such as proportional representation or preferential balloting, would to re-elect a Liberal government using the current system several times over.
“But voters shouldn’t think that voter reform will never happen; we’ll be strongly committed to the idea next time we’re in opposition.”
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2016/10/trudeau-39-5-people-voted-electoral-reform/
“I think we need to remember that as a result of our first-past-the-post system, only 39.5% of people voted for us,” explained Trudeau in an interview with Le Devoir. “This simply isn’t a sufficient mandate to reform the system that produced this outcome.”
“Now I did say that the 2015 federal election would be the last election that uses first-past-the-post, but I was expecting at least half or two-thirds of Canadians to vote for me and my party. I should have crushed Saskatchewan and Alberta with 75% of the vote, but – again, due to factors out of our control at the time – could only muster five seats.”
Trudeau also noted that many of his MPs didn’t receive a majority of votes in their riding as a justification for backing away from his promise.
“Just look at Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef. She only won her riding by less that 44% of the vote! How can a Minister have the legitimacy of leading the change of our electoral system when 56% of her constituents voted against her?”
The Prime Minister added that the only way for his government to gain legitimacy to carry out a new voting system, such as proportional representation or preferential balloting, would to re-elect a Liberal government using the current system several times over.
“But voters shouldn’t think that voter reform will never happen; we’ll be strongly committed to the idea next time we’re in opposition.”
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2016/10/trudeau-39-5-people-voted-electoral-reform/
Speak for yourself! If there ever is a referendum on the issue those of you who don't care can stay at home while those of us who do care go out and vote.
I'm mad because he downloaded the responsibility for electoral reform to two young neophytes - one who couldn't handle the job and this latest but a sacrificial lamb. I'm angry because he spent all that time and money on a really good report then threw it in the garbage. I'm pi**ed off because he didn't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up in the House and tell us himself that electoral reform was dead.
I really didn't care one way or another about the whole issue - I did and do care about the way it was handled. I am fairly happy with the way things are now but was open to other views. I'm glad it's over.
:thumbright:
And I'm really pissed off because it was a stupid idea in the first place (Prime Ministers don't have the authority to change election rules) and he had no bloody business making the promise in the first place and I'm even more pissed off because now he is lying about it. He's a twit!
What's sad is the fools who believed him in the first place. We know that Trudeau is Quebecois first, Canadian second. He had no intentions of changing a damn thing about an electoral system that gives us PMs from Quebec on a near continuous basis. Even Anglophone Quebecers like Mulroney put Quebec ahead of the rest of the country. Besides, he has about as much authority to reform the electoral process as Harper did to reform the Senate.
I agree that we need electoral reform though. It's not right that 1-2 provinces get to determine the political fate of the entire country every single election. But I imagine that won't happen before Senate reform happens and I'm not exactly holding my breath that'll happen either.
However, in reference to my previous post, I doubt we'd actually see too many Ontarians or Quebecers supporting the idea. I could well be wrong and I'd like to hope that I am, but I doubt it. Not enough Canadians see this as an entire country, we are a nation of self-interested "regionalists".
I agree that we need electoral reform though. It's not right that 1-2 provinces get to determine the political fate of the entire country every single election. But I imagine that won't happen before Senate reform happens and I'm not exactly holding my breath that'll happen either.
A "consensus"? A consensus of whom exactly? can't really get a consensus unless you actually ask everyone or as close to everyone as you can. How do you get a consensus without at least holding a plebiscite? And uh, putting up an intermittently functioning website for it is not a plebiscite.
However, in reference to my previous post, I doubt we'd actually see too many Ontarians or Quebecers supporting the idea. I could well be wrong and I'd like to hope that I am, but I doubt it. Not enough Canadians see this as an entire country, we are a nation of self-interested "regionalists".
I can't speak for Ontario, but I think you overestimate the electoral importance Quebec can have and the influence Quebecers think they have. Quebec was largely not very supportive of Harper's Conservatives yet that didn't stop him from holding power for nearly 10 years. A decade is enough to significantly alter political perceptions and my take on it is that Quebecers view themselves as gradually losing their influence in Canadian politics.
In 2011, when many Quebecers decided to vote for Layton's NDP, there was a certain form of political empowerment for Quebec in the sense that Quebecers saw how they could significantly alter the Canadian political scenery by simply dumping the Bloc Québecois. But there was a shadow side to this. The Conservatives still won a majority and the idea that Quebec is simply not politically powerful anymore settled in.
Not at all. How many PMs have we had over the last 40+ years and how many of them were from Quebec? No sense in including Clark, Turner or Campbell since they were turfed shortly after being elected.
There have been 10 PMs since since 1970 although PET was elected two separate times in that period. Eliminating the three previously mentioned PMs and focusing on those who served at least one full term, 6 out of 7 have come from Quebec.
But of course since Lester Pearson it is political suicide for a party leader not to speak French .
