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It either is, or is not, a good and democratic idea to subject major changes to the structure of our democratic institutions to public approval in a referendum. That few of them were originally instituted by referendum has no relevance in this. “First past the post” voting has existed in our system since MPs were first elected (in England) in 1265. Just because the notion of a referendum never occurred to anybody at the time, and indeed, it may well be that no alternative to first past the post voting occurred to them either, that does not imply that we should adopt a new system in the 21st century without any opportunity for the public to approve or to reject it.” – Factaholic

“Both the Liberals and the NDP should commit to holding a national referendum before going ahead with any electoral changes. Anything less is [hypocritical] in the extreme: a voting system that is imposed without popular consent is not democratic.” – Vancouverois

These comments represent the standard of debate we aspire to on nationalpost.com

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Yet two of the three main federal parties are pledging that, if elected, they will summarily change the way Canadian governments are chosen. Both the NDP and the Liberals say they will jettison the first-past-the-post system of choosing Members of Parliament and replace it with some form of proportional representation.

Neither has made the decision contingent on the sort of lengthy discussion you might expect. No referendum. No Royal Commission. The same leaders who demand Canadians buy in to everything from new oil pipelines to the reform of dairy farm protectionism are happy to toss out a process in place since Confederation with no further ado. “Social licence” has become a requirement for any remotely controversial government act, but evidently not when replacing one of the most fundamental pillars of democracy. NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has promised intense consultations with provincial leaders as he seeks to close the Senate, but offers no such pledge for his electoral shake-up. “We’re very clear on this – an NDP government would introduce proportional representation by the next election,” he pledged in a January article. End of issue.