Close X
Sunday, November 24, 2024
ADVT 
International

Northerners Press Trudeau On Electoral Reform; Pm Admits 'I Turned My Back'

The Canadian Press, 11 Feb, 2017 02:18 PM
    YELLOWKNIFE — Now is no time to be provoking political instability in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday as he justified turning his back — his words — on his unequivocal promise to change the way Canadians elect their federal government.
     
    Trudeau, travelling through the Arctic on a so-called "listening tour" of town hall meetings and photo-ops, has been confronted repeatedly by people who want to discuss why he's no longer committed to electoral reform.
     
    "It is because I felt it was not in the best interests of our country and of our future that I turned my back on that promise," Trudeau said Friday when asked by a member of the audience about why he abandoned the plan.
     
    "I know people will be disappointed, yep," he continued as a smattering of boos rose up from the crowd.
     
    "But this was my choice to make, and I chose to make it with full consequence of the cost that is possibly going to come (from) it, but I will not compromise on what is in the best interests of Canada. That's what Canadians elected me for."
     
    In Iqaluit on Thursday, he evoked the controversy surrounding Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch and her stated plan to screen recent immigrants for so-called "anti-Canadian values" as one possible danger.
     
     
    The following day in Yellowknife, Trudeau didn't mention Leitch by name, but he did double down on the notion that an electoral system like proportional representation would give too much parliamentary power to fringe elements.
     
     "If we were to make a change or risk a change that would augment individual voices, that would augment extremist voices and activist voices ... I think we'd be entering an era of instability and uncertainty," Trudeau said.
     
    "We'd be putting at risk the very thing that makes us luckier than anyone else on the planet: the fact that we look at our differences as something to draw on and discover and build on, as opposed to emphasize and highlight."
     
    He went on: in a nutshell, while he has a responsibility to keep his promises, he has a greater responsibility to keep the country together.
     
    "As strongly and as passionately as I believed we could move forward on improving our electoral system ... I recognize a higher responsibility even than that, and that is the responsibility every Canadian prime minister has to keep this country together and united."
     
    As opposed to first-past-the-post, an electoral system in which the first party to win a majority of the seats gets to form a government, proportional representation is designed to more accurately reflect the results of the popular vote.
     
    Eli Purchase, a candidate for the Green party in 2011 and the one who asked Trudeau about electoral reform on Friday, said he disagrees with Trudeau's assessment.
     
     
    "Proportional representation works," Purchase said. "We know it works, based on other proportional representation governments around the world, and anything against it is just a deflection."
     
    A ranked ballot would be far better than the current first-past-the-post system, Purchase added.
     
    Trudeau promised — during the 2015 election campaign, in the Liberal government's first throne speech and several times since — that he would change the way Canadians cast ballots in federal elections in time for 2019.
     
    His newly appointed minister of democratic institutions, Karina Gould, was dispatched to abandon the promise formally last week.
     
    Trudeau dropped Leitch's name in Iqaluit when confronted by a woman who wanted to know why he did not believe a system of proportional representation should replace the existing first-past-the-post voting system.
     
    "Do you think that Kellie Leitch should have her own party?" Trudeau was heard to say.
     
    "Because if you have a party that represents the fringe voices ... or the periphery of our perspectives and they hold 10, 15, 20 seats in the House, they end up holding the balance of power."
     
    Trudeau was also heard to say that the federal New Democrats had been unwilling to budge on the idea of proportional representation. During question period Friday, New Democrat MP Murray Rankin accused him of "spreading alternative facts."
     
    "Do the Liberals not understand that blaming everyone else for their broken promises is exactly what breeds cynicism in politics?" Rankin said.
     
    During the Yellowknife town hall, Trudeau said that holding a national referendum would foment discord and disunity at a time when the forces of nationalism and populism are whipsawing governments and countries across the globe.
     
     
    A referendum would spark "division" and "a campaign that's going to get a lot of heated rhetoric at a time where we're looking for stability in the face of a very unpredictable and unstable political context around the world," Trudeau said.
     
    "I don't think a referendum is the way to go."  

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Sarah Palin As US Ambassador To Canada?

    OTTAWA — At least two federal New Democrat MPs don't find all the conjecture about Sarah Palin becoming U.S. ambassador to Canada very funny.

    Sarah Palin As US Ambassador To Canada?

    Rohinie Bisesar, Woman Accused In Downtown Toronto Stabbing, Set To Go To Trial Next January

    Rohinie Bisesar, Woman Accused In Downtown Toronto Stabbing, Set To Go To Trial Next January
    Rohinie Bisesar is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Rosemarie Junor.

    Rohinie Bisesar, Woman Accused In Downtown Toronto Stabbing, Set To Go To Trial Next January

    No One Hurt As Avalanche Rolls Over Highway 1 Near Yoho National Park

    LAKE LOUISE, Alta. — No one was hurt when an avalanche rolled over the Trans-Canada Highway in southeastern British Columbia early Wednesday morning.

    No One Hurt As Avalanche Rolls Over Highway 1 Near Yoho National Park

    Delhi Police Rescues Kidnapped Child In 4 Hours

    A 22-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a one-and-a-half-year-old boy for ransom in northeast Delhi's Nand Nagri area, police said on Tuesday.

    Delhi Police Rescues Kidnapped Child In 4 Hours

    Don't Know Putin, Have No Deals In Russia: Donald Trump

    In recent days, Mr Trump has been slammed by the opposition parties for saying that he wants to work with Russia and Putin in the fight against ISIS.

    Don't Know Putin, Have No Deals In Russia: Donald Trump

    50 Years of the Sikh Foundation: The Pride and Promise

    50 Years of the Sikh Foundation: The Pride and Promise
    The Sikh Foundation begins its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2017 with an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco titled “Saints and Kings: Arts, Culture, and Legacy of the Sikhs” from March 10th to June 4th, 2017. It features treasures like the ornate helmets and armor worn by the Sikh royals, miniatures carried out in various Indian styles, and art created by artists of various religions and ethnicities featuring Sikh personages and court life.

    50 Years of the Sikh Foundation: The Pride and Promise