Letter to the Editor

Last June, Justin Trudeau promised to “make 2015 the last election under FPTP” and to “make every vote count.” It was a clear, strong message and it was an election promise. We believed him.

ERRE, the all-party electoral reform committee, spent the summer listening to expert witnesses from home and around the world. Eighty-eight per cent spoke in favour of proportional representation. In the fall, ERRE traveled the country and heard from thousands of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Eighty-seven percent spoke in favour of proportional representation.

The results are indisputable.

Since then, Justin Trudeau and Maryam Monsef, the Minister responsible, are giving every indication of trying to back out of their promise. In October, Trudeau told Le Devoir newspaper that since we like him so much, the desire for change is diminished. Monsef echoed Trudeau’s sentiment when she said that “there is no consensus” adding, “I can’t promise you that I’ll be advocating for PR because I haven’t heard that from an overwhelming majority across the country.”

With only days before the ERRE committee delivers its final report to the government, the Liberals are once again looking for feedback, this time a postcard directing us to a website. According to NDP democratic reform critic, Nathan Cullen, the government is spending $2 million to conduct a ‘pop psych survey’ aimed at producing the result the government wants to hear.

Canadians have spoken loudly and clearly. An overwhelming majority of us want a proportional representation voting system, that is, 30% of the vote equals 30% of the seats equals 30% of the power. No more, no less.

Maryam Monsef says she wants to hear from Canadians on values to strengthen our democracy and improve out electoral system. Well, how about this value? Keep the promise to “make 2015 the last election under FPTP” and to “make every vote count.”

Trudeau made a promise, Monsef asked our opinion, and we gave it: implement a proportional representation voting system by 2019.

Let’s get a proportional voting system so we can all vote our values and have our votes count. https://secure.fairvote.ca/en/declaration

Ann Remnant,

Nelson

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