THUNDER BAY – The prime minister has upset many Thunder Bay residents after abandoning his election promise to end the first-past-the-post voting system.
On Saturday, a dozen concerned constituents joined Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Patty Hajdu at her office on Red River Road to voice their opinions on the flip flop of the governments promise.
Fair Vote Canada Thunder Bay leader Dawson Mihichuk hopes the government will realize they alienated a lot of the population by breaking this key electoral promise.
“I hope they realize how big of a mistake they made and will go through with what the consensus of Canadians want, which is electoral reform in a form of proportional representation where every vote counts,” Mihichuk said.
During the discussion individuals were raising concerns regarding the Liberal party going back to the same party as it once was.
Mihichuk has heard this many times from not only the people who are passionate about electoral reform, but from those who are passionate about a wide range of issues.
“Electoral reform is definitely a big one because it’s a key electoral promise and as was brought up during our talk with Hajdu, if the Liberals will flip flop on this issue what else will they back out of,” he said.
“Are we going to see them drop their commitment on marijuana legalization for instance or other key promises.”
He hopes the government’s next step is an apology from the prime minister on abandoning this issue and he hopes they can re-open the debate, re-open issues and continue to educate Canadians.
Hajdu said she will be sharing with the prime minister the concerns from those who are upset with the decision to not change the way Canadians vote.
“I’m going to tell him about particular perspectives,” Hajdu said following the discussion.
“We heard a range of perspectives from people feeling that this in fact is the consensus of Canadians all the way to people feeling like there’s a hope for having this conversation in the next election platform.”
Hajdu added that the government has a challenging agenda at the moment and they will be focusing on a number of other issues, which will make many other Canadians excited.
“There are times where you make a decision as a government and people are thrilled and there are times were you make a decision and some people are not,” she said.
“You cannot please everybody and I think that one of the values of our system is that it’s democratic and we do want to hear from opposing voices and we do welcome those conversations and as I said I will take their voices back.”
