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It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Liberals would favour this option. In polls conducted prior to the last general election, Nanos Research found that the liberals were most likely to be the second choice of both NDP and Conservative voters. In addition, almost one in two Conservatives didn’t have a second choice, which means their vote would have been taken out of the equation entirely in the second round of tabulations. If a preferential ballot had been used in the last election, Abacus Data calculated that the Liberals would have thus had an even bigger majority — 217 seats, or 64 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons — despite still having been the first choice of 39.5 per cent of voters.

Naturally, the opposition is crying foul. Conservative Democratic Institutions Critic Scott Reid charged that, “This is a blatantly, nakedly opportunistic attempt to change the rules in a way that will help them to win election 2019, or do better at it by systematically disenfranchising certain Canadians.” The NDP’s democratic reform critic, Nathan Cullen, added that with the committee’s composition, “The Liberals could simply pass anything that they want.… And the idea that the Prime Minister’s Office would remain utterly neutral, after the prime minister has made his intentions known, is naive and, perhaps, even cynical.”

The irony, of course, is that when the Liberals promised to implement electoral reform, they were low in the polls and nowhere near a majority government. Their pledge to change the system was aimed at voters disenchanted with former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative majority and “anti-democratic” ways. But now that the Liberals are in the driver’s seat, they have no qualms about lifting sheets from the Tories’ playbook. Limits on debate, draconian deadlines and stacked committees are all considered fair play, even when it comes to “improving” democracy itself.

Canadians shouldn’t stand for it. Instead of allowing the government to impose a system designed for its benefit, as it is wont to do, they should demand that voters have the final say, in the form of a referendum. Unless the Liberals go that route, democracy will be the loser.

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