Federal government urged to hold electoral reform referendum

Dec 1, 2016 | News

By: David Tuchman

A special all party Parliamentary committee is recommending that the federal government put forward a proposal for a proportional voting system in Canada and hold a nationwide referendum to gauge how much Canadians would support it.

“The committee recommends that the government should, as it develops a new electoral system … minimize the level of distortion between the popular will of the electorate and the resultant seat allocations in Parliament,”  the special committee report said.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau restated his election promise that the 2015 election would be Canada’s last under the first-past-the-post system.

“That’s why we’re working with parties across this house, and Canadians across the country, to figure out how to best improve our electoral system,” he said.