Chris Selley: Justin Trudeau’s electoral-reform mea culpa only makes him look worse – We all knew the Liberals shamelessly deceived proportional representation supporters. It’s still remarkable to hear him admit it
Chris Selley: Justin Trudeau’s electoral-reform mea culpa only makes him look worse – We all knew the Liberals shamelessly deceived proportional representation supporters. It’s still remarkable to hear him admit it
Fifty-two years too late, Justin Trudeau seems to think a bit of humility might do him good. In [an hour-long podcast interview last week](https://www.uncommons.ca/p/justin-trudeau-on-uncommons) with relatively freethinking Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, the prime minister lamented the way he had handled the electoral reform file. He even posted the clip to his social media, with the caption, “If I could have done one thing different, it’d be this.”
“I made two big mistakes on this (file),” Trudeau told Erskine-Smith. In order to assuage “some very strong voices in my caucus who were very clear they wanted to at least make an argument for proportional representation (PR),” he said he “left the door open” to that.
“And that made a whole bunch of people who heard me say, ‘last election (under) first-past-the-post,’ translate that into ‘he’s going to bring in proportional representation,’ which I was … never … going to,” he said.
Well, no. People didn’t just hear what they wanted to hear. [The 2015 platform document itself promised](https://www.poltext.org/sites/poltext.org/files/plateformesV2/Canada/CAN_PL_2015_LIB_en.pdf) to “convene an all-party parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms, such as ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting and online voting.” PR supporters expected their ideas at least to get a fair hearing. They were *incredibly* naive to do so, but naiveté isn’t a sin. Lying to the naive is a sin.
Indeed, the most remarkable moment in the interview was when Trudeau admitted his campaign language was deliberately designed to “bring in the Fair Vote (Canada) people” — i.e., the most prominent PR-advocacy group in the country, whose members overwhelmingly vote NDP. Trudeau wanted to purloin those votes, at least partly under false pretences. The results show that it worked.
CaliperLee62 on
I’ve noticed recently in the media it is being floated that the NDP could be angling to demand electoral reforming in exchange for continuing to prop up the Trudeau government through 2025.
Could this whole song and dance be a set up to justify Jagmeet Singh dutifully accepting Justin’s preferred ranked ballot being shoved down his throat? 🤔
zabavnabrzda on
He regrets not using his majority to force his pet system of ranked ballots on voters. Seriously a new low for the PM. It is very obvious that we voters aren’t served well when election rules are in the hands of the PM to change as he pleases. Its just a giant conflict of interest.
I think what Fairvote recommends is a reasonable solution: an independent citizens assembly on electoral reform. Leaving ER to politicians has gotten voters nothing.
sask357 on
Strangely enough, I thought that this admission by Justin Trudeau is one of the most positive things he’s said in a while, in the sense that it made me think a tiny bit more highly of him. It was contrary to his usual narcissistic attitude that he’s right and everybody else is wrong.
4 Comments
Fifty-two years too late, Justin Trudeau seems to think a bit of humility might do him good. In [an hour-long podcast interview last week](https://www.uncommons.ca/p/justin-trudeau-on-uncommons) with relatively freethinking Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith, the prime minister lamented the way he had handled the electoral reform file. He even posted the clip to his social media, with the caption, “If I could have done one thing different, it’d be this.”
“I made two big mistakes on this (file),” Trudeau told Erskine-Smith. In order to assuage “some very strong voices in my caucus who were very clear they wanted to at least make an argument for proportional representation (PR),” he said he “left the door open” to that.
“And that made a whole bunch of people who heard me say, ‘last election (under) first-past-the-post,’ translate that into ‘he’s going to bring in proportional representation,’ which I was … never … going to,” he said.
Well, no. People didn’t just hear what they wanted to hear. [The 2015 platform document itself promised](https://www.poltext.org/sites/poltext.org/files/plateformesV2/Canada/CAN_PL_2015_LIB_en.pdf) to “convene an all-party parliamentary committee to review a wide variety of reforms, such as ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory voting and online voting.” PR supporters expected their ideas at least to get a fair hearing. They were *incredibly* naive to do so, but naiveté isn’t a sin. Lying to the naive is a sin.
Indeed, the most remarkable moment in the interview was when Trudeau admitted his campaign language was deliberately designed to “bring in the Fair Vote (Canada) people” — i.e., the most prominent PR-advocacy group in the country, whose members overwhelmingly vote NDP. Trudeau wanted to purloin those votes, at least partly under false pretences. The results show that it worked.
I’ve noticed recently in the media it is being floated that the NDP could be angling to demand electoral reforming in exchange for continuing to prop up the Trudeau government through 2025.
Could this whole song and dance be a set up to justify Jagmeet Singh dutifully accepting Justin’s preferred ranked ballot being shoved down his throat? 🤔
He regrets not using his majority to force his pet system of ranked ballots on voters. Seriously a new low for the PM. It is very obvious that we voters aren’t served well when election rules are in the hands of the PM to change as he pleases. Its just a giant conflict of interest.
I think what Fairvote recommends is a reasonable solution: an independent citizens assembly on electoral reform. Leaving ER to politicians has gotten voters nothing.
Strangely enough, I thought that this admission by Justin Trudeau is one of the most positive things he’s said in a while, in the sense that it made me think a tiny bit more highly of him. It was contrary to his usual narcissistic attitude that he’s right and everybody else is wrong.