The Independent View: New Canadian Prime Minister and Ranked-Choice Voting

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this post.

New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals want to change the way parliamentarians are elected.

Trudeau promised he will convene an all-party committee to study the options, then enact some replacement for first-past-the-post voting within a mere 18 months.

Reaction to his vow to put an end to the only way Canadians have ever chosen their parliamentary representatives was surprisingly muted. Perhaps that was because Trudeau’s electoral-reform pledge came bundled with no fewer than 31 other promises, covering everything from banning partisan federal ads, to updating the way question period works, to appointing equal numbers of women and men to his cabinet. Any one of these platform planks is worthy of heated argument. None digs as deeply, though, into the roots of Canadian political life as the prospect of selecting MPs in some novel way.

The items on that short list of reform ideas can’t be assigned equal weight. Mandatory and online voting are intriguing in their own right, but they could be made part of just about any electoral system. That leaves Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) ballots and Proportional Representation (PR) as Trudeau’s main options for replacing first-past-the-post. Experts point out that those two models don’t really have much in common. Far from being variations on a single reform theme, they are entirely separate propositions, each designed to remedy a different perceived problem.

The Tories, however, argue that the provincial referendums have already proven that Canadians are content to stick with first-past-the-post. “Every time Canadians have voted on this, they chose to keep the current system,” said Minister of Employment and Social Development Pierre Poilievre, who also has responsibility for democratic reform in Harper’s cabinet. “We will continue to respect the democratic will of Canadians.”

Whatever decision is reached, it should be put to a national referendum for approval.

So far, Trudeau doesn’t see it that way. When it comes to changing the way Canadians vote, a big part of the battle to come could be over whether they should get to vote on it.