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The Liberals promised to end first-past-the-post. They did not say what they would replace it with. Electoral reform is not like other government policy. The way in which we elect our leaders underpins their legitimacy to govern; it is the foundation that underlies the state’s authority. Electoral reform, then, can’t be treated in the same way we would treat taxation policy, infrastructure spending or even war. If a citizen has no faith or understanding in the electoral system, a government’s right to engage in even the most basic orders of business come into doubt. What the Liberals are proposing will alter our democracy in a way that is a fever dream compared to anything the Conservatives attempted with their rightly derided Fair Elections Act.

You can’t lay platforms against one another like Venn diagrams and then claim widespread public support for specific policies within them

Therefore, the process by which we reform an electoral system is just as important as the outcome. First-past-the-post has the advantage of being well understood by the electorate and rooted in tradition. It is an imperfect system, but it is not actually undemocratic. Voters understand it and parties are all beholden to the same rules as they have stood for generations.

It will not be enough for the Liberals to merely convene a committee and then select the alternative they like best. The government will need to invest in a massive outreach and education campaign, impartially delivered, to ensure every voter understands why this change is being proposed and what the potential alternatives might be. And then, nothing short of a referendum will assure the populace it has been consulted, and that the changes are to be fairly implemented.