It should be made clear that Trudeau still rejects proportional representation—a system where parties get seats based on their vote percentage—and continues to partially blame opposition parties for his own inaction. He still prefers a ranked ballot system—where you number your preferred candidates in order on your ballot—which would not have made “every vote count” as he pledged in 2015. A recent article from NDP MP Matthew Green and Joseph Gubbels showcases Trudeau’s flawed approach to reform.
The main reason Trudeau abandoned the attempt is that any method that would offer better representation for voters would ensure no more Liberal majorities with ~35% of the vote.
That’s it. He had a majority in parliament. He could have rammed it through. Instead, he assigned his most junior minister to the portfolio and let it die in committee. Constrast it with buying the TMX pipeline, which happened lickety-split.
Winning the popular vote is vanishing rare in Canada, but curiously we’ve had a number of Liberal and Conservative majority governments with weak pluralities. Neither the LPC nor the CPC will change a system that benefits them, but if I were the NDP, I’d make common cause with the BQ and Greens and, if I won, I’d ram PR through on day two.
