This will be remembered as a good move.
Especially because they took the time to gauge public opinion
How old are you? I think you underestimate the number of young people who strongly believe FPTP is not adequate anymore for Canada's democracy.
This is actually the first sensible thing I have heard from our PM ever.
Conservatives were the idiots pushing for a referendum.
There's lots of chairs at the InnI suppose it is not a big surprise. Disappointing perhaps, but not a surprise. No doubt the Liberals looked at the numbers and determined that they will probably get another 40% and win against a weak Conservative Party. However, they have given the NDP ammunition for a comeback.
Canadians have better or more priorities for referendums,this is lameHow would a referendum be a bad idea for canadian democracy?
The way I see it a government that I can't trust is a bad government.
I am sure your grandchildren will enjoy paying for your choices .
Yup. It's a good thing Trudeau backtracked on this one. I don't know why some people are madFirst passed the post has been around for centuries and is used by the most politically stable countries in the world.
The horror.
The horror.
Canadians have better or more priorities for referendums,this is lame
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'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!
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.“A clear preference for a new electoral system, let alone a consensus, has not emerged,” Trudeau writes. “Furthermore, without a clear preference or a clear question, a referendum would not be in Canada’s interest.”
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".
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.I can't speak for Ontario, but I think you overestimate the electoral importance Quebec can have and the influence Quebecers think they have.
But of course since Lester Pearson it is political suicide for a party leader not to speak French .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.