Roundup: A warning or a betrayal?

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Justin Trudeau made some comments to Le Devoir about the reduced sense of urgency around electoral reform, and a bunch of people – notably the NDP – freaked out. Trudeau said:

Under Stephen Harper, there were so many people unhappy with the government and their approach that people were saying, ‘It will take electoral reform to no longer have a government we don’t like’. But under the current system, they now have a government they’re more satisfied with and the motivation to change the electoral system is less compelling.

And then comes the parsing of the rhetoric – is he trying to walk back on his election promise that 2015 was the last election under first-past-the-post, or is he trying to give signals to the electoral reform committee as they begin to draft their report after their summer of consultations across the country? To the NDP (and Ed Broadbent of his eponymously named Institute), Trudeau’s comments are a betrayal because to them, he can only deliver proportional representation or bust. Their working premise is that Trudeau was saying that because the system elected Liberals it’s fine, but when it elected Conservatives, it was broken. But I’m not sure that’s what Trudeau was actually saying, because the prevailing popular discussion pre-election was that reform was needed because any system that delivered Conservative majorities was deemed illegitimate – one of those kinds of talking points that gives me hives because it presumes that electoral reform needs to be done for partisan reasons. And to that extent, Trudeau is right, that the sense of urgency has decreased because the Conservatives are no longer in power, so there’s less clamour for it to happen. There is also the theory that what Trudeau was signalling was that there are degrees of acceptable change, and that without as much broad support that smaller change like ranked ballots could be something he would push through (seeing as we all know that the committee is going to be deadlocked).

https://twitter.com/pmlagasse/status/788788763854077952

https://twitter.com/pmlagasse/status/788789074228371457

Kady O’Malley, on the other hand, thinks that Trudeau is signalling to the NDP and Greens that they should be willing to compromise on PR during the committee deliberations, or he’ll deem it a stalemate and either walk away or put it to a referendum, where it would almost certainly be doomed. Rona Ambrose says that it could signal that Trudeau is backing down, which the Conservatives would like (and to be perfectly honest, I would too because the system is not broken and electoral reform is a solution in search of a problem). That he may have found the excuse to back down and admit this election promise is a failure – and then move on – would be the ideal move in my most humble opinion.

Good reads:

  • Jane Philpott says she’s willing to give money for mental healthcare, but wants to know where it’s going and won’t just sign a blank cheque to the provinces.
  • While Trudeau’s economic advisors are talking about a big spike in immigration levels, John McCallum says it might be a little too ambitious.
  • Chrystia Freeland jetted over to Belgium to meet the Walloon leader to try and smooth over CETA concerns.
  • CRA has recovered some $240 million from tax fraud investigation in the real estate market, particularly in Ontario and BC.
  • The “totally not a backdoor to abortion laws” bill on additional penalties for killing pregnant women was defeated with no Liberals supporting.
  • Here’s an exploration of using a levy on ISPs to help fund Canadian media content.
  • There are questions about a fundraiser that Bill Morneau held in Halifax.
  • The Chinese billionaires “Entrepreneurs Club” currently visiting Canada seem to be very interested in our clean tech.
  • A Conservative backbencher sent out a householder claiming the Liberals are trying to “rig” the next election through electoral reform. Because that language is helpful.
  • Maclean’s talks to Chris Alexander about his leadership bid.
  • Peter MacKay is talking up Lisa Raitt as a potential leader, but won’t endorse her just yet.
  • Peter Julian resigned as NDP House Leader to “explore” his leadership bid.

Odds and ends:

Here’s a look at Princess Louise and her time as the vice-regal consort in Canada.