Our response to Toronto-Danforth's Liberal MP after her party - who got 100 per cent of the power with only 39 per cent of the vote - reneged on their election promise to make every vote count.
Dear Ms. Dabrusin,
Below is a statement taken directly from your party’s election platform:
“We are committed to ensuring that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system”.
It’s clear after today’s announcement that this was another empty promise. Your party repeated this commitment on multiple occasions while campaigning. Ms. Dabrusin, you said yourself during a
Toronto-Danforth all-candidates meeting that the electoral system would be reformed. Once elected, your party again re-iterated its promise to reform our electoral system in parliament, during public
events, in the media and in a Speech from the Throne.
You made this promise for good reason – the outdated and unfair first-past-the-post system produces skewed election results and false majorities. This past election was no different when your party
received only 39 per cent of the vote but was awarded 54 per cent of the seats and 100 per cent of the power. The all-party Electoral Reform Committee heard testimony ranging from experts and academics to everyday citizens concerned about our democracy. The results were clear. Canadians told the committee that our electoral system needed to be fixed and that a system of proportional representation was the clear choice across the country.
Ms. Dabrusin, your party did not fail to implement reform - failing implies effort. Your party chose not to fix our broken electoral system. In doing so, a central campaign promise used to entice progressive
voters was broken. The Liberals lied to Canadians and the voters of Toronto-Danforth who believed you and your party when you committed to fixing our democracy.
We, the Toronto-Danforth NDP, condemn this because of our fundamental belief that every vote should count; we condemn this because it represents another broken promise from the Liberals; we condemn
this because it’s this exact type of cynical, self-serving politics that erodes people’s trust and confidence in the political process.
We write to you Ms. Dabrusin to express our bitter disappointment and to promise to hold you and the Liberal party to account for lying to your constituents. Fixing our broken electoral system is crucial to
the health of our democracy. Toronto-Danforth deserves better, Canada deserves better.
Sincerely,
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