Apparently, we’re going to prosecute the demise of electoral reform yet again, after Justin Trudeau was asked about it in his end-of-sitting press conference yesterday. Trudeau, to his credit, was a bit more frank and earnest than he has been on this in the past, and laid out how he had always been in favour of ranked ballots because they eliminate the need for strategic voting, and the opposition was so solidly in their own camps – the NDP for Proportional Representation and the Conservatives for status quo with the added kicker of demanding a referendum – that Trudeau ended up pulling the plug, because he sees PR as bad for the country (he’s not wrong) and referendums even more problematic (again, their track records globally right now are not good).

Full transcript of Trudeau's comments on electoral reform. Question was from @althiaraj pic.twitter.com/qB7kYl0EHS

— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) June 27, 2017

Of course, everyone freaked out about this answer, and starting howling and frothing at the mouth about how much he’d betrayed them with this promise. Of course, per his promise he did draw up a committee and consult, but he pulled the plug before changing the system.

https://twitter.com/emmmacfarlane/status/879745237308059648

https://twitter.com/emmmacfarlane/status/879754505297985536

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/879754815626252288

Part of the problem – aside from the fact that it was a stupid promise to begin with – was that the Liberals on the electoral reform committee didn’t make the case for ranked ballots, nor did they call any witnesses to put forward that position, and apparently disinvited the ones who had already been invited. Having listened to the eager faces on the committee, I’m not entirely convinced that this was simply a cynical ploy the whole time, but I do think a great deal of naïveté was at play, where they were trying to be open-minded – something none of the other parties could say, as they did their utmost to stack the process from the beginning, both with the torqued composition of the committee itself, to the selection of witnesses, to the so-called “consensus” in the report (which was hot garbage, let me reiterate).

We were shocked when the parliamentary committee refused to hear evidence about Preferential Voting and uninvited experts they had talked to

— 123 Canada (@123canadavote) June 28, 2017

The fact that the Liberals played coy about their Trudeau’s preference was certainly a problem. Maybe it’s because they were trying to avoid the myth going around that ranked ballots were “First-past-the-post on steroids,” a characterization based on the analysis of a single poll of second-choice votes of the 2015 election, which was neither authoritative, nor did it take into account the fact that it didn’t produce such a result in Australia, and yet this notion hovered in Canadian media for months. So the handling of this whole affair continues to mystify, but for the love of all the gods on Olympus, can we just bury it already?

Good reads:

• At his press conference, Trudeau also reiterated that the sniper shot in Iraq was consistent with our mission, and downplayed fears of the Norsat sale to China.
• Trudeau also said he’s fine with the way the Senate is going, but it’s the Conservatives who are obstructing (which they object to).
• Also from Trudeau, why he says he doesn’t tout how well our economy is doing, and he’s blaming the Conservatives for the size of the deficit.
• The Chief Justice of the Federal Court says they need an additional $25 million to avoid things like IT failure and to address staffing issues.
• Scott Brison says the government is reviewing recommendations around strengthening whistleblower protections.
• The government suspended provisions in the anti-spam law that would allow private litigation against companies, which business lobbyists are happy about.
• The government lost their bid to halt a trial against solitary confinement, as there is no guarantee their bill mandating limits will pass.
• The government is now letting self-governing First Nations keep their own revenues without clawing back transfers while they come up with a new system.
• Kady O’Malley delves into the riding-level political fundraising reports.
• Kim Campbell talks about being outspoken on social media.
• Susan Delacourt talks about the wedge that the Trumpocalypse is driving between Canada and the US, and how it may be more long-lasting.
• My column looks at how Senator Peter Harder put himself in an untenable situation when he tried to play hero on the budget implementation bill.

Odds and ends:

Here is more about the Queen’s Guards, and how it was that a Canadian was the first woman to command them.

Despite just having had his term as Ambassador to France renewed, Lawrence Cannon says he’s stepping down in September.

A new climate change ambassador was named after the position was vacant for almost two years.