Politicians break their campaign promises at their peril, but the Liberal government was right to abandon its electoral reform pledge.
It was a key campaign promise for the Liberal Party and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who promised the 2015 federal election was the last time Canadians would select their MPs using the current first-past-the-post system.
Sometimes a government needs to read the lay of the land and be able to back away from campaign pledges when there is no broad support.
The process was flawed, bungled in fact, from the outset.
The first attempt by the Liberal government to form a committee to study the issue failed in May 2016 when the Grits had the most members on the committee.
A second committee, with representation from all parties, recommended a referendum on proportional representation in fall 2016. Then Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef criticized the report and the committee for, as she said, not doing “the hard work” to identify an alternative voting system. She was subsequently moved to another post.
The government then launched an online survey which was criticized by many for not asking specific questions about various alternatives.
In the end the survey revealed two-thirds of Canadians like things just the way they are.
The Liberals were right to back off from their pledge, but it doesn’t take them off the hook for their poor handling of this issue.
First past the post is not perfect, but it does give Canadians the ability to hold their government and their representatives in the House of Commons accountable.
There may still be room to make it better, but if there are to be any changes, Canadians need to have the final say.
