Back in 2015, Justin Trudeau campaigned partially on abolishing the FPTP method, and made a promise that during his mandate (if elected), he would have a committee figure out an alternative, to make the House more representative of how people actually vote.
He lied. He did set up a committee... but initially stacked it with more than 50% Liberals, then had to backtrack when people protested. So it was an all-party committee, but still more Liberals than any one other party. The committee came up with proportional as the preferred method, but Trudeau himself preferred ranked ballots (due to the way Canadians have voted for decades, this meant that the worst the Liberals could ever do would be second - iow, they would always be either the government or the Official Opposition).
So... Trudeau did a fast mini-cabinet shuffle, getting rid of the minister who had been in charge of this little exercise, and appointed someone new, whose job would be to stand up in Parliament and announce that the committee hadn't been able to come to a consensus, and therefore no change would be made. And anyway, Trudeau didn't think this was really anything people cared about anymore, and proportional representation would be bad anyway, 'cause just think of all the annoying fringe parties that could end up in the House and hijack sensible policies and legislation and we wouldn't want that, right?
LIAR. And really dishonest. He knows full well that if some fringe party did manage to get a seat somewhere, they wouldn't have any more influence than an independent MP. There's a minimum number of seats required for full party status, that determines everything from where you sit to where your office is, and whether or not you get to ask questions in Question Period and if you can table Private Members' Bills. And these fringe parties are mostly right-wing crackpots, who can't even get along enough to form a bigger party. Even the United Conservative Party (UCP) in my province is a dog's breakfast of hard-right Conservatives, Wild Rose, Reform, and whatever western separatists haven't jumped ship to join the actual separatist party out here (they call themselves the Maverick party).
So Trudeau made a promise and promptly reneged as soon as he had his majority win in 2015. This is a major reason why his next two wins were minority ones. If he survives his next leadership review, I don't think the Liberals will get another majority if he's the leader.
He's unveiling his cabinet this coming week. Should be interesting to see who stays and who the new people are.
