When Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister of Canada in 2015, he explicitly promised to reform the country’s voting system. Now it looks like Trudeau is going to break that promise.
Canada, a relatively obscure country best known for bordering America, conducts elections via a “first-past-the-post” voting system. That means the candidates in a race with more than two contenders are not required to secure 50 percent of votes in a given district to be declared the winner. Rather, the candidate simply with the most votes wins. The British Parliament used a “first-past-the-post” system until it was abolished in 2011 via nationwide referendum.
During his campaign for prime minister, Trudeau declared that “2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system.” It won’t be. After spending the last several months deliberating about how to replace the existing voting system, Trudeau’s administration announced Wednesday that they were scrapping those efforts.
“It has become evident that the broad support needed for a change of this magnitude did not exist,” said Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould, a member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party.
Trudeau’s political opponents denounced the move as a “cynical and jaded” attempt to maintain power. “They’re fearful of having a voting system that doesn’t keep Liberals in power forever more,” said MP Nathan Cullen, a member of the New Democratic Party.
Trudeau has been hailed by many Americans as a “woke” prime minister, and praised for his commitment to social justice. He has, on occasion, surprised Canadians by jumping out of caves shirtless and photobombing their wedding photos in a wetsuit.
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