“I happen to be a very polarizing figure in my own riding. A lot of people really like me, a lot of people react very strongly to me one way or the other and a number of sovereigntists and NDP supporters together in the riding, if they decide they don’t like me, they have more than 50 per cent. Now, it sucks for me, but, ultimately, I think we want to have a system that moves away from people who are polarizing and towards people who can bring people together because we’re a country of diversity and differences,” Mr. Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) said Saturday morning at the Liberal biennial convention in Ottawa. “We need MPs who represent more than 50 per cent of their riding so that everyone will have the majority of citizens who voted for them.”
Mr. Trudeau won his Papineau riding with 38.4 per cent of the vote in the May 2 election. Bloc Québécois candidate Vivian Barbot, who held the riding before Mr. Trudeau won it in 2008, garnered 25.9 per cent of the vote, while the NDP’s Marcos Radhames Tejada received 28.3 per cent of the vote.
Mr. Trudeau was speaking at a delegate session on democracy and good governance, the majority of time which was spent debating resolution 79, to institute a preferential ballot system for federal elections.
Liberal MP Stéphane Dion (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville, Que.) also spoke on the panel with David Eaves, a fellow at the centre for the study of democracy at Queen’s University; Maryantonett Flumian, president of the Institute on Governance and a former deputy minister at Human Resources and Social Development Canada; and Liberal Party representative Mary Pynnenburg. Former Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay moderated the panel.
Mr. Trudeau said that while “proportional representation isn’t automatically good for the Liberal Party,” it’s important to support it “even though in my own personal case in Papineau it means I probably wouldn’t win my riding.” He said if Canada did have a PR system, he would continue to work hard to win the riding, but even if it were in his best interest not to support a PR system, he still would. “It’s not something that anyone can point at and say, ‘It’s better for the Liberal Party to do this,’ ” he said. “I think it’s just better for the country.”
Ms. Hall Findlay, who lost her Toronto-area Willowdale, Ont., seat in the May 2 election campaign, joked that if the proposal in resolution 79 was already in place, she “would actually have won [her] seat.” The audience laughed.
Mr. Dion, who one delegate called the “rock star of the round table,” said that the Liberals’ motion on implementing a preferential ballot system, where voters rank their choices of candidates and continue to do so until one person receives 50 per cent plus one of the vote, is a good start to a more fair voting system. He said pure proportional representation where every vote is reflected in the House of Commons would be a “disaster” for Canada. While resolution 79 is not perfect, it’s a good first step, he said.
“It’s not simple,” he said. “You would have countless number of parties, some tiny parties, one issue parties not willing to make any compromises, that would negotiate their presence in the executive branch, and at the end of the day they would have more influence than what they represent in the population. Some countries have this problem and decided to go to modified PR instead of pure PR. … I don’t want that in a decentralized country like Canada where we don’t only have one government, we have 14 governments in our federation. We have to be careful. I have ideas to go further than [resolution] 79—one day I will be greatly pleased to discuss it with you—today my suggestion is first steps first.”
David Caldwell, a delegate from the Kingston and the Islands, Ont., riding, said that he was “on the fence” about resolution 79 because he said he believes Canada needs “something more radical” in terms of fair representation in the House of Commons. He said, however, that the panel discussion persuaded him to vote in favour.
“If we don’t vote for it, we give the impression that we don’t want to make any change, whatsoever,” he said. “We should seize this historic opportunity for us to formally embrace the principle of proportional representation as an absolute necessity for the future of Canada. The reality is that, as a party, it has been in our best interest not to see that happen until now. Meanwhile, we’ve had 10 per cent of Canadians voting Green, even though they knew they couldn’t elect anyone in their riding. What does that say about our hearts, our souls as people, if we can’t give those people the opportunity for their votes to be registered in the House of Commons or at least in the wheels of government? We have truly lost real democracy.”
Mr. Trudeau said, however, that in politics, there will be some people who lose and a 50-per-cent-plus-one system is the best way to get a true majority.
“There are going to be winners and losers,” he said. “The move towards PR says, ‘Well, everybody should get to pick who gets to have a voice.’ Well, you know what, at one point you have to say the majority or plurality does have to win. You can’t give blue ribbons to everyone because everyone tried so hard. At one point, looking at over 50 per cent of votes to approve of the person who speaks for you with the balances of the charter to prevent the tyranny of the majority which we have here [in resolution 79] is I think a positive change. I’m willing to debate PR when that comes up, but I think for now this is a good idea,” said Mr. Trudeau.
Mr. Dion responded by saying that the best part of resolution 79 is that “it’s simple” and does not preclude governments from going further when the time is right. “We may say, ‘If it’s not exactly what I want I will vote against,’ and then you will have the status quo. Or you may say, ‘It’s not everything I want, but if I want improvements, it will open the door to the substantive changes we need after.’”
Original Article
Source: Hill Times
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