Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is convinced electoral reform will be an election issue this fall, despite years of other political leaders trying to tackle the matter.

Trudeau’s predecessor, Michael Ignatieff, campaigned hard on electoral reform in 2011 without success; the Liberals lost their position as Official Opposition that year to the NDP.

But after 10 years of leadership under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Trudeau believes that electoral reform will be an election issue when Canadians head to the polls this October.

“I think the mood out there across the country is quite unmistakable,” said Trudeau. “What Canadians understand very clearly is that actually changing the way we elect governments and changing the way governments behave leads to a much better quality of decision-making.”

Last week, Trudeau proposed a 32-point plan to “restore democracy in Canada.” The plan proposes Canada do away with the first-past-the-post system in the next federal election.

If elected, Trudeau promises to introduce electoral legislation within 18 months of forming government, based on recommendations from an all-party parliamentary committee that would study alternatives, such as ranked ballots and proportional representation. The committee would also consider mandatory voting and online voting.

"We need to show Canadians that real change is possible," Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa earlier this week. "This place is broken. Together we are going to fix it."

But those words are familiar to Canadians. The late NDP leader Jack Layton campaigned on a similar slogan in the 2011 election.

Ottawa is broken. It’s time to fix it. Watch the ads now & support the campaign: http://ndp.ca/hhuZh #NDP #Cdnpoli — Jack Layton (@jacklayton) February 28, 2011

Trudeau refused to acknowledge the similarities between his policy and that of the New Democrats.

“The Liberal Party has always been a party that looks at pragmatic solutions and ways of fulfilling the values that Canadians want to see from their government,” said Trudeau. “There’s been lots of ideas put forward by different political parties, by experts, about how to fix parliament.”

Fight for the centre-left

Trudeau made his policy pitch days before Parliament rose for the summer break, and likely until after the election.

As MPs head to into the summer barbecue circuit, the fight for the centre-left is on, and recent polls haven’t been in the Liberals’ favour. In a recent Nanos poll, 28 per cent of respondents said they preferred NDP Leader Tom Mulcair for prime minister, ahead of Trudeau at 26 per cent, but behind Harper’s 29 per cent. Trudeau dismissed the polls.

“I think it’s normal that polls go up and down,” said Trudeau. “We’ve all seen what polls do and linking things too directly is always a bit of a mug’s game.”