MPs to study electoral alternatives over summer

OTTAWA— A small group of MPs will have five months to work out an alternative to Canada’s 149-year-old electoral system, a change that could have far-reaching consequences for how national politics is done.

The Special Committee on Electoral Reform could begin hearing from witnesses after the Canada Day weekend, and there appears to be a willingness to sit through the summer if need be.

“There’s a certain amount of work that we have to get done by a certain time, and whether we do it … two days a week over seven weeks, or four days a week over three weeks, there’s certain things that we just have to get done,” said the committee’s chair, Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia, on Tuesday.

Electoral reform is admittedly dry stuff at a time when Canadians are beach bound or headed to the cottage. But for Canada’s three main political parties, the debate over how we elect MPs is crucially important. The way federal elections are run could drastically alter parties’ strategies and pitches to the public.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged 2015 would be the last federal election under the first-past-thepost system. Critics of the system argue it distorts the will of voters, allowing parties to win a majority of seats with less than 40 per cent of the vote — as it did with the Liberals in 2015, and Stephen Harper’s Conservatives in 2011.

Conservative MP Scott Reid, the vice chair of the committee, admitted Tuesday that the first-past-thepost may not be perfect — but it might be better than the proposed alternatives.

The Liberals, however, have largely excluded the existing system from the discussion so far.

“The danger is once the status quo is removed from the table, then the temptation is to start steering in the direction of a system that’s not merely new, but which weights the system in favour of the party in power,” Reid told reporters after the committee’s inaugural meeting Tuesday.

“It is difficult to remove (self-interest) from the equation for any political party, and that will be a challenge for them.”

The NDP have long pushed for a form of proportional representation, in which the House of Commons would more accurately reflect the parties’ share of the popular vote. But Nathan Cullen, the New Democrats’ lead on the committee, has previously stated that he would support any improvement over the current system.

To make good on their promise, the Liberals will have to introduce and pass legislation in early 2017, in order for Elections Canada to prepare for the 2019 election.