On electoral reform, Trudeau lied. And he ran a strategy designed to sabotage electoral reform and create acceptance of his lie.

Specifically, there were two lies. Trudeau lied last Wednesday, saying there was no consensus on electoral reform. And, since at least mid-November, he was lying each time he repeated his election promise of electoral reform. Since at least that time Trudeau was actively working against it.

After the election, Trudeau appointed political rookie Maryam Monsef to the sensitive assignment of electoral reform. And when he finally unveiled his electoral reform process in May, it included a Parliamentary committee with a majority of Liberal MPs and no public consultations.

These may have been early signals Trudeau had already made up his mind.

In reaction to Trudeau’s torqued electoral reform process, the opposition – especially NDP MP Nathan Cullen – created a groundswell, putting Trudeau on the defensive. The PM backed off, freed the committee and allowed public consultation.

Now outside Trudeau’s majority control, the all-party committee heard from Canadians. Detailed reports show nearly 90% of committee witnesses favoured proportional representation and 88% of town hall testimonies supported it.

Numerous public opinion polls showed Canadians wanted to end first-past-the-post. And the most popular replacement was proportional representation.

During this time PEI voters, in a referendum, voted to adopt proportional representation.

By early November, anyone paying close attention could see there would be a committee consensus in favour of proportional representation and a vote. On November 16, that consensus was publicly revealed by Cullen.

And clearly, by at least mid-November, Trudeau had decided to sabotage the coming consensus report and shut down electoral reform. His strategy of disruption had two parts. First, immediate suppression of media reports on the day of the report release. Then, a longer-term disorientation strategy – the mydemocracy.ca web site, which was launched December 3 but would have needed considerable work prior.

From at least that time, every time Trudeau repeated his election pledge he must have been lying. He was, in fact, sabotaging it.

The consensus report was released December 1st. NDP, Conservative, Green and Bloc MPs – all but Liberals – recommended proportional representation be adopted through popular vote. All but Liberals. Huh.

That afternoon, Monsef gave the media an absurd performance with silly props – all aimed to suppress reporting of the consensus report. And that day she counter-factually stated what, two months later, would be Trudeau’s exact closing statement: there was no consensus.

The very next day Trudeau met with the Toronto Star editorial board. “I’m working very hard so that 2015 is indeed the last election under first-past-the-post.” He wouldn’t give up – “that’s not the way I was raised… regardless of how difficult.” Another lie.

Three days later the mydemocracy.ca disorientation strategy was launched. It was a collection of bizarre questions. Not one of them was about Canadians’ preferred electoral system. Mydemocracy.ca extruded a nauseating film of meaning-disruption to confuse Canadians, create noise and disrupt the plot. The goal was to create conditions for acceptance of Trudeau’s closing lie.

And last Wednesday, safely after his “listening tour” and amid disturbing events, he delivered the closer. Trudeau said electoral reform was dead because there was no consensus. To the degree the disruption strategy was effective, his lie would be reported as just a broken promise. Clearly, to a fair degree it has been.

Then the craven Trudeau dodged out, leaving his newest Minister to shield the media hits. How can you says there’s no consensus, veteran reporters asked, when all parties except your own support the recommendation? The new Minister recited her PMO lines.

Some say only a fool could believe Trudeau intended to keep his promise. That somehow it’s your fault for believing him.

It’s not your fault, it’s his. He’s not been an honest leader on this issue.

- Tom Parkin is a former NDP staffer and social democrat media commentator