National Post (National Edition)
’No path’ to bring in electoral reform, PM says
Cites lack of compromise from opposition
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he made the “difficult but necessary” choice to break his promise on electoral reform because the other parties refused to compromise and accommodate the Liberal preference for ranked ballots, and that he's always felt proportional representation would be bad for Canada.
At a news conference on Tuesday to wrap up the spring sitting of Parliament, Trudeau gave one of his bluntest answers yet on electoral reform. When asked if he felt bad about breaking his promise to end the first-past-the-post system by the next election, he paused for a few moments before answering.
“This was something that I felt, and continue to feel, personally, quite strongly about,” he said.
“Unfortunately it became very clear that we had a preference to give people a ranked ballot ... We thought that was the right, concrete way forward. Nobody else agreed. The NDP were anchored in proportional representation as being the only way forward.”
He said he's been “consistent and crystal clear” throughout his political career that proportional representation would “be bad for our country.”
“I think creating fragmentation amongst political parties, as opposed to having larger political parties that include Canada's diversity within them, would weaken our country,” Trudeau said.
And he said the Conservatives, for their part, were insistent on keeping the status quo.
“The only way to break that logjam would have been to do a national referendum, which I definitely don't think was in the best interests of Canadians,” he said.
“So it was a very difficult decision for me to make the determination that even given my own hopes that we would be able to move forward on reforming the electoral system, there was no path to do that. There was no openness to compromise in the other parties, and I wasn't going to use my majority to bring in a system just to tick off a box on an election platform.”
In the last election, Trudeau promised electoral reform without specifying a particular solution. An all-party committee of MPs then spent 2016 studying electoral reform, concluding last December that the government should hold a referendum to bring in some type of proportional representation system.
The government rejected it, with then-Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef calling it “hasty” and saying she was disappointed in the committee's work. Shortly afterward, Trudeau dropped the electoral reform promise from the democratic institution minister's mandate.
Trudeau spent half an hour answering wide-ranging questions from the media on Tuesday morning. Here are a few other notable quotes:
On the record-breaking sniper shot in Iraq, and whether Canadian forces are in combat there:
“The advise-and-assist mission that Canadian Forces are engaged in in northern Iraq has always had an element of defence, of obviously Canadian troops and of our coalition partners ... What happened there is, first of all, something to be celebrated for the excellence of Canadian Forces and their training and their performance of their duties. But also something to be understood as being entirely consistent with what Canada is expected and Canadians expect our forces to be doing as part of the coalition against Daesh.”
On the Senate’s independence:
“The working of the Senate is actually beginning to be understood by Canadians, certainly by our government, as being significant steps in the right direction, consistent with what the actual founders and creators of our political institutions envisioned 150 years ago. This approach demonstrates less partisanship, more independence of thought. And the fact that we are, you know, stymied a bit by a bloc of partisan Conservatives who vote against the government every chance they can get simply means there is more work to do to create a more independent and thoughtfully reflective Senate.”
On the larger-than-promised budget deficits:
“Quite frankly, in our election platform, if you tally up the promises we made, it was about $10 billion worth of new spending. In our first year, in our first budget we put forward, we committed to about $10 billion in new spending. We just went from a floor where the budget was balanced, because supposedly the Conservatives had balanced the budget, to what was the reality of our budget of being at about $18 billion in deficit at the end of that first year. So we've been consistent with our plan and our approach.”
(Despite being asked, he did not answer about when he plans to eliminate the deficit.)
IN OUR FIRST YEAR, IN OUR FIRST BUDGET WE PUT FORWARD, WE COMMITTED TO ABOUT $10 BILLION IN NEW SPENDING.