It looks like someone in the Trudeau cabinet came to the aid of the party and exerted some influence on the vote reform file. It is not that the Minister of Democratic Institutions was causing anything to happen. Ms. Monsef has been looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It is about time someone got around to telling her what to do.
What she is now doing is softening her approach and suggesting that she might listen to the opposition parties. This approach will certainly take the wind out of the sails of the Conservatives. All they have said to-date is that they wanted a referendum on any change. The other parties were more concerned about the idea of having a parliamentary committee dominated by Liberal MPs. They have been wanting to slash the tires on that bus before it gets out of the garage. Now that the Liberals are listening, it will be interesting to see if they come up with anything positive.
Not that there is any unanimity among the opposition parties. Maybe the Greens and New Democrats can come to terms on proportional representation but neither the Conservatives nor Liberals will buy into that kind of reform. All it would do would help ensure that there would be no majority government other than potential coalitions involving multiple parties.
The Conservatives have taken a safe tack on this as they are saying they are in favour of some reform but only if there is a referendum for the voters to have the final say. They are counting on the public wanting to stay with first-past-the-post that we have always used.
If the minister was pro-active or knew what she was doing, she would have called for a series of meetings with Elections Canada officials and computer experts to discuss the idea of open Internet voting in elections with run-off voting for the top two candidates in electoral districts where nobody had a majority. It could be the inexpensive solution that could satisfy the objectives of all the reform advocates.
What the opposition needs to realize is if the leading party already has a majority in the first round of voting on the election, the voters will be far more willing to add opposition MPs. That can also be a factor when there is no majority as the voters might pick their own coalition. The key is that you give the voters some time to think about it and the pundits could be surprised what the voters come up with.
And the point is with run-off elections, the Liberals can claim they are enriching the voting process and there is no need for a referendum. There is no serious change. There are only better results.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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