The wailing and gnashing of teeth of the electoral reform crowd is about to get worse, as they will soon convince themselves that the government is out to kill their dreams of a new electoral system. Why? Because after the committee demanded that minister Maryam Monsef give them a report of the electoral reform consultations she’s received, she’s told them that those consultations are showing fairly strong support for the status quo, and that there is no consensus on what kind of electoral reform that people prefer. Add to that, there is apparently a strong preference for the local representation connection in their various values questions, which goes toward supporting the status quo argument. I’m fairly thrilled to hear about so much support for team status quo and hope that this bolsters the case to abandon this whole foolhardy process, but I fear we’re still a little ways away from that as of yet.

Meanwhile, our friends at Fair Vote Canada are baying at the moon that the new survey the government plans to open to Canadians is biased toward the status quo based on sample questions they found on the testing site. Except of course that those aren’t the actual final questions on the survey, and the questions were generated by the company for testing purposes rather than the government for their actual survey, so no dice (yet) on that particular conspiracy theory. Nevertheless, killing this whole electoral reform headache can’t come fast enough, nor can the justifications based on the “values” quizzes by the government. Then maybe we can focus on the real problems, like civic literacy and engagement, rather than trumpeting solutions in search of problems.

Every vote counts – not every vote elects.

— Stephen Lautens (@stephenlautens) November 18, 2016

Good reads:

• From his visit to Argentina, Justin Trudeau and that country’s president are saying that trade, not protectionism, will help the economy and jobs.
• The Conservatives may be howling that Trudeau dared to broach NAFTA talks, but the deals original negotiators say that it badly needs updating.
• A Canadian Forces recruitment site appears to have been hacked today, while CSE released statistics on cyberattacks on government systems.
• Liberal MP Adam Vaughan said that people opposed to private investment in infrastructure are “stupid and irresponsible” and the bigger risk is not building.
• Oh, look – renewed talk about sole-sourcing Super Hornets. I can’t wait for the wailing and gnashing of teeth on this in QP.
• Some BC Liberal MPs are telling the government that they’re hearing negative reactions to the Kinder Morgan pipeline in their ridings.
• The Coast Guard may need to buy interim icebreakers and tow vessels while delays on building new ones mount.
• The Kurdish regional government is warning against a mass migration of Yazidis.
• The Commons heritage committee was taking Facebook Canada’s head of public policy to task over the problem of fake news.
• Here’s a look at ways in which Trump-style angry populism is coming to Canada, not only via Kellie Leitch but also in the Alberta PC leadership race.
• One of Kellie Leitch’s former staffers is taking to the op-ed pages to denounce her positions on Canadian values testing.
• Leitch may be railing against elites, but her campaign has more wealthy donors than others.
• A former Alberta MP is Maxime Bernier’s new campaign co-chair, so he’s not just appealing to Libertarian Quebeckers.
• The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ looks into the claim that Trump’s NAFTA concerns are only with Mexico. (Spoiler: Some baloney).

Odds and ends:

The CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint didn’t properly declare retirement gifts, so the Ethics Commissioner has slapped his wrists.