{"id":157968,"date":"2024-07-12T09:49:53","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T13:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/rwddev\/?p=157968"},"modified":"2024-07-12T09:51:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T13:51:25","slug":"liberal-annihilaton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/liberal-annihilaton\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Liberal annihilation: Lesley Hastie | Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lesley Hastie<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How can the federal Liberals prevent annihilation at the 2025 election? Lloyd Axeworthy<\/span><\/a>, former Liberal Minister of Foreign Affairs said very recently that they should be using the year or so of runway ahead of the election to \u201cchange course in many ways\u201d and \u201crevive a former promise on electoral reform\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why are the Liberals likely to face defeat? Polling shows that changing the leader would make little difference to the party\u2019s popularity and that after 19 years, people want change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why a disastrous defeat, possibly evisceration? We have an example of what might happen in this July 2024 UK election, in which the Conservative Party suffered the worst defeat in the 300 years of Britain\u2019s democracy against a landslide victory for the Labour Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parallel is that both Canada and the UK have the same first-past-the-post (FPTP) system. In the UK, the winning party, with only 36% of the popular vote, won 63% of the seats. If seats had been in proportion to the number of votes cast, Labour would now have 234 seats, the Conservatives 144 seats, and neither would have had an outright majority of 326.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electoral Reform and a move to Proportional Representation (PR) would produce a far more equitable seat distribution in Canada\u2019s House of Commons that mirrors the public will. This, in turn, would eradicate \u201cfalse majorities,\u201d where a single party with only a small majority of the vote wields enormous power, shackling opposition and muzzling dissent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a PR system, future elections are likely to produce minority governments. From 1972 \u2013 1974, Pierre Trudeau, supported by the NDP, ushered in some of the most progressive legislation in our history. The current minority Liberal government, under pressure from the NDP, has afforded cheap child daycare and dental care to eligible households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin Trudeau promised in 2015 that this would be the last FPTP election. In 2016, his government said, \u201cFederal electoral reform is part of the Government\u2019s commitment to change. Canada has a strong and deeply rooted democracy. One way to protect our democratic values is by continuously seeking to improve the functioning of our democratic institutions\u2014 including our voting system\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are still waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens around the rest of the world in the 36 countries with PR? (Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n