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Will Justin Trudeau keep his promise to make the 2015 election the last one held under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system? Doubts continue to be raised.

The Liberals were intent on ending this ancient voting method, but once it became apparent that a leading alternative — proportional representation (PR) — would forever end their status as natural governing party of Canada, they started backpedalling. Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef wasted no time rejecting the electoral reform committee‘s 350-page report calling for a referendum on a form of proportional representation, andnow appears to be orchestrating a do-over.

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Proportional representation is no silver bullet. It is volatile and usually divides a legislative body into a moving carousel of ideologically fractured small parties that need a coalition to function, and in other jurisdictions has allowed extreme parties to surface, grow and even enter cabinet and play king-maker after elections.