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Electoral reform didn’t happen. What it means for your vote
yewtu.beMotion 86 called on the federal government to establish a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform. It failed to pass in the House of Commons, but more than 100 MPs voted in favour — revealing some cross-party support. Here’s what that means for your vote.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news
Producer/host: Avneet Dhillon
Production editor: Alison Tayag
Senior producer: Amara McLaughlin
0:00 - Intro
0:16 - Failed 2015 Liberal promise of electoral reform
0:35 - First-past-the-post
1:23 - Proportional representation
1:39 - Mixed member proportional
1:58 - Ranked ballot
2:42 - Young voters on educating the public on electoral reform
3:01 - Votes on Motion 86: Citizens' assembly on electoral reform
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I’m going to try voting for a party that says they will end first past the post voting, if there are any. Except the party that already have made that promise and not delivered. Fool me twice and all that.
NDP and Green then
NDP were saying it before the Liberals
Well, I guess the NDP do win seats sometimes. What about the Liberal and Conservative MPs who did vote for this bill? Would you vote for them, or are they too tainted by the parties they are affiliated with?
When did it even come to a vote? My understanding is they just glossed over entirely.
I’m leaning towards NDP over the others, but depends what they promise closer to the election.
All I’m saying is the Libs will never gain my vote for election reform. They may win my vote in other ways, but not that way.
Wow, even if the Liberal MP in question voted for this bill? I could understand that though.
Trudeau said, repeatedly, publicly, as a campaign promise that the election that led to his first mandate would be the last election in the FPTP system, then put together a sham process that inevitably did not work (and/or didn’t support the Ranked Ballot system that would benefit the Liberals the most).
I do not trust the Liberals or Conservatives to give us a good electoral system, like Single Transferable Vote or list-less-MMP. Our only hope for real electoral reform is an NDP/Green government of some kind, and the NDP don’t stand a chance at forming government right now (unfortunately).
That’s a bullshit narrative.
The problem was, the Liberals favoured ranked ballot but would consider STV, the NDP wouldn’t support anything other than MMP, the CPC wouldn’t support any change, and the Bloc just wanted to play spoiler. The Liberals were in a minority on the committee because they needed to be to ensure legitimacy. If they’d just imposed a system, the CPC had already said they’d overturn it whenever they gained power. Having cross-party agreement would have made that much more difficult. The only system they could get agreement on was MMP, which is what the committee recommended.
MMP is good for proportionality, but it can have issues with party lists, members not tied to geographic areas can be difficult to remove, and responsibility for geographic areas is shared, making it easier to dodge. Whether MMP would even pass constitutional muster is an open question. The biggest drawback is explaining the system to a general public who only have known a one vote, one member, one riding system. Ranked or STV are much easier to explain and the current ridings wouldn’t need to change.
Anyway, the Bloc and CPC were going to campaign hard on calling any change a Liberal power grab. Internal polling (not the dog and pony show web poll) showed that most voters didn’t care about the issue, but the “Liberal Power Grab” would gain traction. With the CPC promising to roll back any changes, the whole thing looked more and more like an effort in futility.
In the end, they decided to take their lumps and move on. After all the heat they took for even trying, as far as the Liberals are concerned, the issue is dead. Basically a similar story arc as every time a provincial government has looked at it.
The CPC never wanted it in the first place, and won’t bring it up if in power. The NDP essentially don’t exist at the federal level east of Ontario, have a shot at maybe a handful of seats on Ontario, a few more in Manitoba, will be shut out of Saskatchewan and Alberta but will pick up seats in BC. The Bloc will continue to play spoiler, and the Greens, after their self immolation, are irrelevant at the federal level.
Which bill? There was no bill.
er… what, did they call it a motion? The thing they just voted on. To form a Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform. Some Libs and Tories actually did vote for it. In fact, my MP, Ben Lobb (Con), voted for it. Good for that guy. I am actually considering voting for him next election because of this, even though I really don’t agree with the rest of the Conservatives.