Canadians deserve a referendum
Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose issued a bit of advice Wednesday to which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be wise to pay attention. Ambrose warned the prime minister to move cautiously on the Liberals’ pledge to introduce a radical makeover to Canada’s electoral system. Before ditching a system that has served the country well for almost 150 years and replacing it with an untried new model, she argued, he has a duty to examine j ust how keen Canadians are on wholesale change.
“Mr. Speaker, when we change the rules of democracy everyone gets a say,” she said. “Sixty per cent of Canadians did not vote for the Liberal party. These millions and millions of Canadians who, as the prime minister said, he left in the dust, get to have a say, too. Does the prime minister only listen to Canadians who voted for Liberals, or will he govern for all Canadians and hold a referendum?”
The Liberal response was noteworthy, and may be indicative of what we can expect from a government that pledged a new level of openness but is already learning the art of the fudge.
The prime minister noted first that “over the past 10 years we have heard from many Canadians,” and found them deeply frustrated with Ottawa’s ways. Then he pointed out that the Liberals are determined to keep their promises, added that “Canadians want to be part of a change in government” and took a few cheap shots at the previous government before rounding up with a pledge to “consult all Canadians, starting with the elected members of the House of Commons, to create a system of electoral reform that works for the whole country.” His final word on the issue was: “We will do this right, based on what Canadians have to say, not what the Conservatives have to say.”
As an example of the new, heightened level of respect the Liberals assured us they would bring to Parliament, it’s not very promising. Nor is it suggestive that the government intends to end the partisanship it so often criticized. As Ambrose noted, the Liberal platform offered just a vague idea of the new system they want to introduce, indicating only that it would no longer be the traditional first- past- the- post system. The rest is up in the air.
The Liberals can f airly argue that their disproportionate share of power is an example of the very system they want to change. With less than 40 per cent of the vote, they have majority power for the next four years. Nonetheless, the basis of their claim to a mandate for a fundamental change to the electoral system is weak. They made more than 300 promises during the campaign; t hey have already broken some of the biggest and seem set to backtrack on more. For many others, there is no reasonable hope they can deliver. Canadians voted to get rid of former prime minister Stephen Harper, not to embrace every individual component of the Liberal playbook. To suggest that the support of 40 per cent of voters ( and only 27 per cent of Canadians as a whole) is justification for overturning the existing electoral system is a conspicuous example of the slippery politics Trudeau claims to eschew.
It’s no stretch to suggest few Canadians have a deep understanding of t he options the Liberals have in mind. There are dozens of variations on proportional r epresentation, many of them bewilderingly complex. When Ontario and British Columbia proposed reforms for provincial elections, voters delivered a firm thumbs down. Although many i nitially expressed approval of a voting change, the more details they learned, the less enthused they became. One big advantage of Canada’s current system is that you know what you’re getting: if most of the individual ridings choose Party X, you get a Party X government. In many of the alternatives, it can take days or weeks before the new government takes shape, due to deal- making, coalition talks, ranked ballots and other peculiarities of proportional representation. Belgium once took a full year to produce a government.
The Liberals owe Canadians a direct vote on any plan they put forward. Trudeau will only commit to broad c r oss- party t al ks. That’s not good enough. If he wants to act on the will of Canadians, he has to give them the opportunity to express that will via a referendum. Canadians want what’s good for Canada, not what’s satisfying for the Liberals.