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“Mr. Speaker,” Monsef began, “democracy is more than just about voting. It is about working together to ensure that every voice and every perspective is engaged and included in governance.”

Then she continued: “In the past, the Progressive Conservative Party extended the right to vote to women and indigenous persons. The party did not hold a referendum. It came to Parliament and collectively worked together to do the right thing.”

Monsef’s point, if I understand it correctly, is that because a government 100 years ago expanded the political franchise without holding a prior vote, the Liberal government of today is justified in using its majority — earned by way of system of voting we are now to accept is deeply flawed — to steer the ship on a totally unrelated matter, because Parliament should work together.

Everyone got that? Let’s move on.

Conservative MP Scott Reid then put to the House that the most inclusive way of consulting Canadians on the matter of electoral reform would be to put the final decision “to 35 million Canadians for ratification or rejection.”

Monsef responded: “Allow me to take this opportunity to remind all members of the House that the final decision on what reforms we bring forward will be the decision of all 338 members of the House, and to believe otherwise is undemocratic.”

According to our Minister of Democratic Institutions, it is undemocratic (authoritarian? possibly illegal?) for members of a democracy to vote on a matter at the core of our how parliamentary system operates

By this, if I again understand correctly, Monsef means that it is more inclusive to consult 338 suited partisans in Ottawa than it is to directly consult 35 million Canadians from across the country: an equation that is best illustrated using Discovery Math, which I will attempt later. Furthermore, according to our Minister of Democratic Institutions, it is undemocratic (authoritarian? possibly illegal?) for members of a democracy to vote on a matter at the core of our how parliamentary system operates, and that a true democracy means that everyone’s voice is equal, as long as the voices have a seat in the House of Commons and serve on a committee stacked with Liberal MPs.