Amid Leitch furor, PM defends ‘turning back’ on electoral reform promise
YELLOWKNIFE — Amid controversy over his disparaging remark about a potential Conservative rival, Justin Trudeau is defending his decision to abandon his Liberal government’s promise to change how Canadians choose their federal leaders.
Speaking at a town hall event in Yellowknife, the prime minister says he turned his back on the promise — his words — because he feared proceeding would foster political discord and instability.
He also says he knows people are disappointed and suggests he’s prepared to accept the political consequences, whatever they may be.
Trudeau appeared to be expanding on remarks he made Thursday when he cited Tory leadership candidate Kellie Leitch as an example of someone who ought not be given too much sway in Parliament.
He made those remarks in Iqaluit while conversing with a woman who wanted to know why he did not believe a system of proportional representation should replace the current first-past-the-post voting system.
Leitch, an Ontario MP, has proposed screening would-be immigrants and refugees for “anti-Canadian values,” an idea that has been compared to those championed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“It is because I felt it was not in the best interests of our country and of our future that I turned my back on that promise,” Trudeau said Friday when asked by a person in the crowd about why he abandoned the plan.
“I know people will be disappointed, yep,” he continued as boos echoed from the crowd.
“But this was my choice to make, and I chose to make it with full consequence of the cost that is possibly going to come (from) it, but I will not compromise on what is in the best interests of Canada. That’s what Canadians elected me for.”
He explained that the idea of a ranked ballot was abandoned because too many people believed it would be a system that would favour the Liberals.
And a referendum, he said, would foment discord and disunity at a time when the forces of nationalism and populism are whipsawing governments and countries around the world.
“If we were to make a change or risk a change that would augment extremist voices and activist voices ... I think we’d be entering an era of instability and uncertainty,” he said.
“We’d be putting at risk the very thing that makes us luckier than anyone else on the planet” — the fact that as a diverse and multicultural country, Canadians are still able to come together and consistently elect stable, productive governments.
On Thursday, a live microphone picked up Trudeau’s conversation with a member of the crowd as the two discussed the question of proportional representation, a system advocates say would be more reflective of the will of voters.
“Do you think that Kellie Leitch should have her own party?” Trudeau was heard to say.
The woman suggested Leitch was part of a different conversation, but Trudeau insisted it was not.
“Because if you have a party that represents the fringe voices ... or the periphery of our perspectives and they hold 10, 15, 20 seats in the House, they end up holding the balance of power.”
Trudeau promised — during the 2015electioncampaign,intheLiberal government’s first throne speech and several times since — that he would changethewayCanadianscastballots in federal elections in time for 2019.
His newly appointed minister of democratic institutions, Karina Gould, was dispatched to abandon the promise formally last week.
During the Iqaluit exchange, Trudeau was also heard to say that the federal New Democrats had been unwillingtobudgeontheideaofproportional representation.
“The fact that the NDP was absolutelylockedintoproportionalrepresentation, no matter what, at any cost, meanttherewasnogiveandtakepossible on that,” he said.
DuringquestionperiodFriday,New Democrat MP Murray Rankin accused the prime minister of “spreading alternative facts.”
“Do the Liberals not understand that blaming everyone else for their broken promises is exactly what breeds cynicism in politics?” he said.