OTTAWA – Today, Fair Vote Canada and Democracy Watch jointly released the letter they sent yesterday to federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson. The letter requests investigations and public rulings concerning Prime Minister Trudeau’s dishonest and improper actions on electoral reform.
Set out in the letter to Ethics Commissioner, Mary Dawson, is the evidence that makes it reasonable to conclude that Prime Minister Trudeau’s statements and actions violate rules in the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons (the “MPs Code”) and in the Conflict of Interest Act.
In the lead-up to the 2015 election and beyond, Prime Minister Trudeau promised unequivocally to end the first-past-the-post voting system and replace it with a system that would “Make Every Vote Count.”
The promise to change the voting system was repeated more than 2,000 times and was a key plank in the Liberal election platform.
For five months, the MPs on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) heard overwhelming evidence and heartfelt pleas from Canadians to change the voting system to one that would reflect proportional representation.
Thousands took their time to participate in good faith.
After hearing months of testimony from academics, experts and citizens, the Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) submitted a majority report that reflected the recommendations of experts invited to testify. The ERRE heard 180 experts in total and, of these, 107 expressed themselves on the choice between keeping our current system or adopting a proportional system. Fully 88% of these expert witnesses called for a proportional system, according to a detailed compilation undertaken by Fair Vote Canada.
This consultative process was the fifteenth of its kind in Canada. Every one of these recommended to make the system fairer and more representative by moving to a proportional voting system, including the federal process initiated by the Prime Minister.
Yet, our Prime Minister ignored all of the evidence and decided arbitrarily that "all forms of proportional representation would be bad for Canada." (CITE)
This abrupt reversal of the promise made on electoral reform, and the complete rewriting of the facts show a lack of integrity. It suggests that Mr. Trudeau made his promise of electoral reform solely to attract voters in the first place and never intended to honour this promise. This becomes even clearer considering that both his election promise and the original mandate letter for the Minister of Democratic Institutions explicitly referred to proportional representation as an option, yet the Prime Minister now states he always thought proportional representation would be bad for Canada (see below).
Fair Vote Canada’s Executive Director, Kelly Carmichael stated: “Canadians need to feel confident that those we elect are honest and act with integrity and put the needs and desire of the citizens of this country before their partisan self-interest. In fact, in the Speech from the Throne, Prime Minister Trudeau appeared to agree with this sentiment as he he continued to laud his plan to unequivocally end first-past-the-post voting system when he stated “’The trust Canadians have in public institutions — including Parliament — has, at times, been compromised.’”
“If the Ethics Commissioner fails to investigate our complaint or finds Prime Minister Trudeau didn't violate any rules with his dishonest statements and actions, it will show clearly that the rules need to be changed to prohibit politicians from blatantly misleading Canadian voters with false election promises and claims in-between elections," said Duff a Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.
Both Fair Vote Canada and Democracy Watch want to see honesty and integrity in politics and both work to strengthen our democracy through better policy. The broken promise on electoral reform is a stellar example of why we feel it necessary to request investigations and public rulings concerning Prime Minister Trudeau’s actions on electoral reform. The policies are in place to protect citizens against dishonesty but they are only effective if they are strongly enforced, and we hope Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson will use the tools at her disposal to restore integrity to Canadian politics.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
info@democracywatch.ca
Kelly Carmichael
Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada
kelly.carmichael@fairvote.ca
705-559-9657
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