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What’s more, the data is the least of it. As policy goes, this is a party in retreat from the mainstream.

For instance: The hyperventilation in the House of Commons over the Liberals’ climb-down on electoral reform has been a marvel. B.C. MP Nathan Cullen has led the field, passionately excoriating Trudeau for abandoning his oft-repeated promise to scrap Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system. The fun continued Thursday in the Commons, in opposition-day debate. The Liberals, the New Democrats aver, must apologize. Apologize!

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This is not the language of desired policy outcomes, but of embarrassment. The goal is to raise a hue and cry, stir public opprobrium. Presumably this means New Democrats think Canadians are open to being outraged, in great numbers, by the fact we’re not about to spend the next two years in a lather over the distinctions between proportional, mixed-member proportional and ranked ballot. Really?

The government will take a hit for this, certainly. But only someone sealed in a hyperbaric chamber, or the Parliamentary precinct, would argue this is fuel for discontent among the millions of Canadians who did not attend any of the 39 public meetings held last year by the House Electoral Reform Committee.

There were 571 written briefs and 731 witnesses in that exercise, all certainly worthy of note. The committee ultimately judged proportional representation would be a better system for Canada than the status quo. It may well have been correct in this. But the committee is not the country.