VAUGHAN, Ont. - Liberal Leader Mark Carney says his government would double Canada’s rate of residential housing construction over the next decade to nearly 500,000 new homes per year.
I understand the commendable instinct to give another chance, but this isn’t about a one-time broken promise - it’s about a century-long pattern. Liberals have promised proportional representation since 1919, starting with Mackenzie King.
The 2015 promise wasn’t just casually broken - Trudeau literally admitted last year that Liberals were “deliberately vague” to appeal to electoral reform advocates while never intending to implement proportional representation.
Just last year, 107 Liberal MPs (68.6% of their caucus) voted against even creating a Citizens’ Assembly to study electoral reform, despite 76% of Canadians supporting it.
This isn’t about partisan politics - it’s about our declining democracy. Canada’s effective number of parties is down to 2.76, showing we’re sliding toward an American-style two-party system under Duverger’s Law.
In a democracy, citizens deserve representation. Every election under FPTP means millions of perfectly valid votes are discarded. How many more decades should we wait?
This isn’t just about a party not following “promises exactly” - it’s about a fundamental democratic reform promised and then deliberately abandoned. The electoral reform promise wasn’t a minor policy detail; it was presented as a pillar of their platform with Trudeau stating it over 1,800 times.
When a government makes a major promise about democratic reform and then breaks it, it directly undermines their democratic legitimacy to make all other promises. This pattern goes back a century - Liberals have campaigned on proportional representation since 1919, starting with Mackenzie King.
In 2024, Trudeau even admitted they were “deliberately vague” about electoral reform to appeal to advocates while never intending to implement proportional representation.
Housing promises matter deeply, but they’re built on the same democratic foundation that was undermined by this broken commitment. A government elected through a system where millions of votes don’t count is structurally limited in its ability to represent Canadians’ actual preferences on any issue, housing included.
Yes, it was a particularly bad one. He wasn’t lying about a new system, but he definitely left out that he wanted a possibly worse new system.
A government elected through a system where millions of votes don’t count is structurally limited in its ability to represent Canadians’ actual preferences on any issue, housing included.
Unfortunately, there’s no credible path to proportional rep this election.
Remember when the Liberals also promised the 2015 election would also be the last under FPTP?
I’m willing to give a 2nd chance after a decade
I understand the commendable instinct to give another chance, but this isn’t about a one-time broken promise - it’s about a century-long pattern. Liberals have promised proportional representation since 1919, starting with Mackenzie King.
The 2015 promise wasn’t just casually broken - Trudeau literally admitted last year that Liberals were “deliberately vague” to appeal to electoral reform advocates while never intending to implement proportional representation.
Just last year, 107 Liberal MPs (68.6% of their caucus) voted against even creating a Citizens’ Assembly to study electoral reform, despite 76% of Canadians supporting it.
This isn’t about partisan politics - it’s about our declining democracy. Canada’s effective number of parties is down to 2.76, showing we’re sliding toward an American-style two-party system under Duverger’s Law.
In a democracy, citizens deserve representation. Every election under FPTP means millions of perfectly valid votes are discarded. How many more decades should we wait?
What is your solution
I don’t know the particular solution to the housing crisis (nor did I insinuate I have one).
But the solution to the millions of perfectly valid ballots being tossed out every single Canadian election, is proportional representation.
I’ve been repeating this: Simple things you can do to grow the proportional representation movement.
Perhaps after we get PR, we can get actually effective governments, that respond even more deeply to the people’s needs.
This is an amzing comment. Thank you soo o much for the links.
Just a Canadian concerned about democracy!
Here are some more links: Simple things you can do to grow the proportional representation movement.
I’ll never forget, but that doesn’t really have much to do with this.
Good luck finding a party that always follows their promises exactly.
This isn’t just about a party not following “promises exactly” - it’s about a fundamental democratic reform promised and then deliberately abandoned. The electoral reform promise wasn’t a minor policy detail; it was presented as a pillar of their platform with Trudeau stating it over 1,800 times.
When a government makes a major promise about democratic reform and then breaks it, it directly undermines their democratic legitimacy to make all other promises. This pattern goes back a century - Liberals have campaigned on proportional representation since 1919, starting with Mackenzie King.
In 2024, Trudeau even admitted they were “deliberately vague” about electoral reform to appeal to advocates while never intending to implement proportional representation.
Housing promises matter deeply, but they’re built on the same democratic foundation that was undermined by this broken commitment. A government elected through a system where millions of votes don’t count is structurally limited in its ability to represent Canadians’ actual preferences on any issue, housing included.
Yes, it was a particularly bad one. He wasn’t lying about a new system, but he definitely left out that he wanted a possibly worse new system.
Unfortunately, there’s no credible path to proportional rep this election.