It was almost on the sly that the Legault government reneged on its commitment to reform the voting system in Quebec. It was on the afternoon of Friday, December 17, just before Christmas, that the government chose to confirm that it was abandoning its Bill 39 and that the Coalition d’avenir Québec (CAQ) even renounced any promise to reform the voting system in Quebec. François Legault showed us all the importance he attached to this issue (or none) by letting one of his cabinet’s political advisers confirm the news to the New Democracy Movement (MDN) and to journalists.
Some may forget it, but it has been almost seven years (in 2015) since the CAQ publicly promised electoral reform. From 2016, she participated in DND initiatives in collaboration with other political parties (including the Parti Québécois, Québec solidaire and the Green Party of Quebec) and civil society organizations. In December 2016, these parties signed a joint declaration in which they supported a reform of the voting system (this was a first in the history of this debate). In May 2018, the leaders of these same political parties reconfirmed this transpartisan agreement committing them to tabling a bill establishing a new voting system in the first year of the next government. During the last Quebec election campaign, François Legault clearly promised that the new voting system would be ready for the general election in October 2022.
After the election of the new Caquist government, procrastination was quickly made public and delaying strategies were employed to delay the adoption of a reform of the voting system. As early as December 2018, it was mentioned that the Legault government’s commitment was limited to tabling a bill. In May 2019, the deadlines for implementing a new voting system presented by Élections Québec were used by the government to assert that it would ultimately be difficult to be ready for October 2022. In September 2019, when Minister Sonia LeBel presented Bill 39 in the House proposing the establishment of a new mixed voting system with regional compensation, it was added that this would only come into force following the fulfillment of two new conditions: a winning referendum (to be held in October 2022) and the support of at least two opposition parties. As a result, the government confirmed that it was reneging on its initial promise. Then, even if François Legault had affirmed that we are not mistaken in a democracy when we consult the population, we will confirm the abandonment of this same referendum in April 2021.
Since March 2020, little has been done on this file, the government has lacked transparency, and Bill 39 has remained in parliamentary limbo.
The pandemic has often been invoked to justify the delays, but it is first and foremost the members of the CAQ who have decided not to go further with electoral reform (according to the comments reported by Jean-Pierre Charbonneau, president DND).
Once again, partisan interests were the determining factor with the MP caucus in their decision not to reform our voting system.
This can obviously still change between now and the next elections, but current political polls predict on average 47% of support for the CAQ and an overwhelming majority of 80% of seats in October 2022. This possible electoral anomaly (immense distortion) will be manufactured by our first past the post electoral system.
In addition to its lack of representativeness and the strong electoral distortions it generates (historically more pronounced here), remember that our voting system does not allow fairness of the result, since each vote does not count equally.
In the 2018 general election, 54.5% of Quebec voters voted for candidates who were defeated in their constituency, which means that all 125 deputies were elected by 45.5% of the valid votes.
Citizens who support a defeated candidate in their constituency may feel, after the election, that they are not represented or that their vote is lost (or wasted) since it has no bearing on the final result. across Quebec. This aspect discourages people from going to vote. Equity in representation was one of the fundamental values in the proposed reform of the voting system.
What is unfortunate is that there has not really been a democratic conversation on this issue. The Legault government has become the fifth to present an agenda of electoral reforms and to itself end the process. What is typical in Quebec is that citizens have never yet been able to have the last word on the issue, compared to other Canadian provinces which have dealt with the issue. It is true that for many Canadians, the voting system remains an invisible institution, of which they know little about the workings. Educating the public on this issue remains a key element since citizens tend to give more weight to values than political elites. If citizens realize that there is a problem with this voting method and that solutions exist, they will be able to support future governments in honoring their electoral commitment.
After several years of proceedings, we can understand the indignation of the activists and groups who participated in good faith and who sought to collaborate with the Coalition futur Quebec, they deserved more than the indifference of François Legault who did not not deigned to explain himself publicly.
The debate on reforming the voting system will undoubtedly return to the public arena in the coming years when our voting system once again produces electoral results that are shocking to the public. This decline remains disappointing, but there is a generation of leaders who will one day want to be honest about this issue.
* Julien Verville posted Reform of the voting system in Quebec, Government trajectories and avenues for reflection (University of Quebec Press, 2020)