Liberals waver on vote changes
Have t he Liberals abandoned their efforts to gerrymander the electoral system to their advantage?
An interview on the weekend with the hapless democratic institutions minister, Maryam Monsef, suggested they may be wavering in their commitment to make the 2015 election the last held under the current first past the post system.
“Canadians can rest assured that unless we have their broad buy-in, we’re not moving forward with any changes,” she told the Toronto Star.
At first blush, this looks as if the Liberals have recognized their efforts to stack the parliamentary committee looking at the options might upset even those normally friendly to the government. “Broad buy-in” would suggest a majority of Canadians supporting any new voting proposal in a referendum.
Opposition parties rubbed their palms and looked forward to grilling the minister in question period.
There is a cruel natural selection process in the parliamentary jungle and the rookie minister has been identified as the weakest link.
In previous appearances, she has said a referendum on changing the fundamentals of Canadian democracy would not be sufficiently inclusive, excluding young people, women and minorities.
She has also said that her government would be listening to Canadians via Twitter, “the 21st century way”.
But the minister had a pressing, not to mention convenient, reason to be some- where else Monday.
It was left to Mark Holland, the four- times elected parliamentary secretary, to fend off the attacks from the Conservatives and New Democrats, who are both keenly aware that the ranked ballot system would produce Liberal majorities until Justin Trudeau qualifies for a seniors’ bus pass.
As a poacher turned gamekeeper, Holland was more than equal to the task of evading the opposition traps, pointing out that the last democratic reform proposal — the Fair Elections Act — came from the Conservatives with no consultation.
“We want to do things differently … Canadians have spoken and 60 per cent voted for parties that said we need to modernize the system,” he said. “We have an historic opportunity to improve the way Canadians interact with their democracy.”
So no mention of abandoning plans to overhaul the system, if there’s a lack of support. No retreat, no apology, no surrender were the Liberal talking points of the day.
In fact, all the signs point in the opposite direction. The Privy Council Office ( PCO) has just hired Derek Alton, co- founder of the group Guelph 123, which advocates the use of the ranked ballot system.
The Prime Minister’s Office, conscious of the accusations that the Liberals are trying to politicize the public service by parachuting in partisans, said Alton did not work on the Liberal election campaign or contribute to the party platform.
A PCO spokesman said Al- ton is working on community and stakeholder engagement on electoral reform and was hired independently by the office.
“Mr. Alton is well qualified to undertake the work he is assigned, given his unique combination of education and experience,” he said.
But it all has the whiff of politics to Nathan Cullen, the NDP democratic reform critic.
“If you have a prime minister preferring a system and you start hiring people that support the same system, it gets harder and harder to credibly say you’re unbiased, that’s the problem,” he said.
The real problem is that there is a fundamental lack of trust about recasting the way we vote, given the vested interest involved.
If the last election had been held under the ranked ballot system, the Liberals would have siphoned votes from both Conservatives and NDP, amassing about 224 seats by one estimate. If it had been held using a form of proportional representation, the Liberals would likely have been held to a minority.
No surprise then that senior Grits have been sweating spinal fluid to further the prospects of the ranked ballot option.
But the public does not seem to be buying Monsef ’s line that government- controlled parliamentary hearings and a Twitter debate constitute robust consultation.
A poll for Global News suggested three in four Canadians want a referendum on any changes — a move that would likely kill reform, as previous plebiscites did in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Ontario. The opinion polling indicates that even many Liberal voters don’t trust the government to put country ahead of party.
It all smacks of Conservative efforts to reform the Senate. After his rather half- hearted efforts to overhaul the Red Chamber were rebuffed, Stephen Harper threw up his hands and appointed 59 senators.
If Monsef doesn’t win more hearts and minds, the Liberals might have to resign themselves to living with the voting system that delivered them a whopping majority last time.
WE HAVE AN HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE (THE SYSTEM).