Liberals to announce committee to study electoral reform

Share

The Liberal government will announce Wednesday the creation of an all-party committee to study electoral reform.

Liberal House Leader Dominic LeBlanc and Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef have scheduled a news conference to unveil the initiative that the Liberals promised during the last election campaign.

"Our government is determined to meet our comm‎itment that 2015 was the last election to use a first-past-the-post system," Ms. Monsef said in a statement.

"It's time to remind Canadians that they are in charge. Modernizing our voting system will provide all of us with an opportunity to participate more fully in shaping our country."

‎Critics of the current first-past-the-post system say it mutes the voices of millions of voters because it ignores the will of everyone who didn't vote for the winner.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said a voting system should include those voters. One option is a ranked-ballot system used in Australia.

The New Democrats, however, say they prefer mixed-member proportional representation rather than the ranked ballot.

The Conservatives say electoral reform should not proceed without a referendum.

One survey suggested a ranked ballot would have given the Liberals an even greater majority in the 2015 election than the one they obtained with 39.5 per cent of the popular vote.