Putting the boots to people power

Another Justin Trudeau promise to save Canadian democracy bites the dust.

For more than a month, critics have roasted the prime minister for breaking his vow to change the voting system by the 2019 federal election.

It was a spectacular flip-flop on Trudeau's part and understandably infuriated those who voted for him in 2015 expecting an end to first-past-the-post elections.

But in recent days, those who believed Trudeau's pledges for more open democracy and more power-sharing with ordinary Canadians had their hopes -- and trust -- dashed again.

When he was running for the Liberal leadership in 2013, Trudeau promised open nominations in every federal riding. It was part of his commitment to make his party one of the most democratic in the world.

After becoming leader, he reiterated that it would be up to the Liberals in each and every riding to choose their candidate in a free vote.

Star candidates would not be parachuted into Liberal strongholds. Neither Trudeau nor the party establishment would interfere with the selection process.

Those pledges, sadly, were written in the shifting sands of Trudeau's political agenda.

In two ridings that are preparing for April 3 byelections, Liberal party officials have meddled with the nominations in a way that helps candidates favoured by top party brass and Trudeau himself.

In Markham-Thornhill, just north of Toronto, the party retroactively declared on Feb. 20 that Feb. 14 was the cut-off date for recruiting party members for the March 4 nomination vote.

That had would-be candidate Juanita Nathan and her supporters crying foul. She said she had registered nearly 1,600 new members on party rolls, but because of the retroactive deadline she hadn't known about, none of them would be allowed to vote.

Nathan and her supporters believe the party acted to help one of Trudeau's senior advisers, Mary Ng, win the nomination. By the end of this week Nathan had dropped out of the race.

Something similar happened in the Montreal riding of SaintLaurent where former Quebec immigration minister Yolande James is believed to be the preferred choice of the Liberal party establishment.

Alan DeSousa, the mayor of Saint-Laurent for the past 15 years, also wanted a crack at the nomination.

On Tuesday, DeSousa revealed that the Liberal party had barred him from the race. In the letter he showed reporters, no reason was given.

This kind of interference didn't start with Trudeau's government, nor is it confined to the Liberal party. The problem for Trudeau is that having very loudly rejected such tactics he is now quietly permitting them.

Trudeau doesn't have to change the law or hold a referendum to make federal politics more truly reflect the will of the people. He can strengthen Canadian democracy all on his own.

In this case, Trudeau needed only to keep his earlier promises and let the Liberals in each riding elect their candidate -- free from the interference of Liberal power brokers.

But federal politics as they have always been done are again the order of the day.

And the Big Red Liberal Machine that everyone thought had been parked in the garage is rolling over people power once more.