New minister dodges electoral reform queries
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau’s newly minted minister for democratic institutions is refusing to repeat the prime minister’s campaign promise that the 2015 election would be the last conducted under the firstpast-the-post voting system.
Asked twice Thursday if she’s committed to ensuring the federal government honours Trudeau’s promise, Karina Gould dodged both times, saying only that she’s committed to getting briefed on the file.
Gould gave a similar response when asked if the government is still planning to introduce electoral reform legislation by May, as originally promised by Maryam Monsef, her predecessor in the portfolio.
The need to be briefed before commenting on specific issues is a common — and plausible — response from newly appointed ministers in any portfolio. But in Gould’s case, the refusal to even repeat an explicit and unequivocal campaign promise will likely add fuel to suspicions that the Trudeau government is looking for an exit strategy on the troublesome electoral reform file.
Trudeau himself did not directly repeat the promise when asked about electoral reform Thursday during a town hall meeting in Kingston, Ont.
A woman who identified herself as a longtime Liberal asked Trudeau if he believes, as she does, that a proportional voting system — in which a party’s share of seats in the House of Commons reflects its share of the popular vote — is best for Canada.
“I’m on record from before I became prime minister suggesting that I think an option in which people can rank their choices is probably suitable for Canada, but I have showed consistently that I’m open to a broad range of perspectives and views, including yours,” Trudeau said.
“And what we are doing is we are listening carefully to Canadians, we are looking at the recommendations of the committee and we are going to move forward on improving our electoral system in a way that is consistent with the priorities and values that Canadians express.”
Trudeau described electoral reform as “a complicated issue that people feel very strongly about on a number of different sides of the issue.”