Singh calls for reform of ‘broken’ voting system after NDP falls short in Quebec
Posted October 22, 2019 10:21 am.
Last Updated October 22, 2019 10:32 am.
BURNABY, B.C. – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says there’s nothing wrong with Canada – it’s the electoral system that is broken and in
need of repair.
That was Singh’s morning-after assessment of a federal election election result that saw his party relegated to fourth place in the House of Commons behind the Bloc Quebecois.
At a news conference in Burnaby on Tuesday morning, Singh said he feels no pressure to step aside because of his party’s loss of seats. He laughed off the question with a simple, “No.”
Given the NDP’s loss of seats, I asked Singh if he felt any immediate pressure to step aside. He laughed it off with a simple “no.”
As for a formal governing agreement or something informal with the Liberals, Singh says “everything is on the table.” #cdnpoli #CanadaVotes2019 pic.twitter.com/rVT7gjg3fD
— Martin MacMahon (@martinmacmahon) October 22, 2019
The Liberals under Justin Trudeau eked out a minority government victory, and managed to do it with just 33 per cent of the popular
vote, compared with 34 per cent for the Andrew Scheer Conservatives.
That translated into 157 seats for the Liberals and 122 for the Conservatives, leaving New Democrats with just 24, including a near wipeout in Quebec where the resurgent Bloc grabbed 32 seats.
Singh, who anticipates working more closely with the Liberals in the upcoming Parliament, said he plans to push for a proportional
representation system, which would have given his party more seats based on its 16 per cent slice of the popular vote.
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“I think that the results show, not a broken Canada – the people, in a lot of ways, share so many values, share far more values than they have separate. But the results show a broken electoral system,” Singh said.
Trudeau broke a 2015 pledge to reform the electoral system and get rid of the current first-past-the-post system in which the candidate with the highest number of votes claims victory.
As for a formal governing agreement or something informal with the Liberals, Singh said “everything is on the table.”
