Skeena Bulkley-Valley Member of Parliament Nathan Cullen says Prime Minster Justin Trudeau should hang his head in shame after today’s decision to abandon his electoral reform election promise.
“This is disgraceful for a prime minister to act this way. Particularly, one that promised to be so much different than the last government,” says Cullen from Ottawa. “Today the Prime Minster stood up and said to Canadians,’I lied to get elected.”
The Liberal Government is looking to keep the first-past-the-post system, something that Cullen says will only benefit their party while throwing the multi-party Electoral Reform Committees’ work out the window. Cullen, who was also the Vice Chair of the committee, says this is a snub to the Canadians that participated in the committee’s consultation across the country.
“The sense of betrayal is real. I’m thinking about all those Canadians who in good faith invested in this conversation. The government of Canada asked them for their opinion, they gave it, and the government… ignored it. I just hope for more in our world than governments who are so arrogant.”
The Liberals endorsed Cullen’s call for proportional representation last year before assembling a committee made up of MPs from all parties based on the last election results.
The committee held close to 50 meetings across the country with thousands of Canadians participating in the consultation process.
They released a final report in December calling for a proportional voting system while also recommending a referendum.
“This fight isn’t over. Clearly we heard from so many Canadians who wanted to see a change.”