Justin Trudeau seems to be against consdering electoral reform

On December 3rd 2014 the House of Commons had vote on a motion from Craig Scott of the NDP about proportional representation and the Liberal leader Justin Trudeau voted against it.   Here is the text of what Trudeau is opposed to:

That, in the opinion of the House: (a) the next federal election should be the last conducted under the current first-past-the-post electoral system which has repeatedly delivered a majority of seats to parties supported by a minority of voters, or under any other winner-take-all electoral system; and (b) a form of mixed-member proportional representation would be the best electoral system for Canada.

In total 276 out of 307 current MPs voted.  All the MPs for the NDP, Greens, Bloc and Forces et Démocratie voted for the motion, all of the Conservative MPs voted against.   The Liberals split with the leader voting against the motion.

What should concern people is that the leader of the Liberals, Justin Trudeau voted against the motion.   It does not give much hope to seeing any change to the electoral system if there are more members of "Team Trudeau" elected.

In total 16 Liberal MPs voted for improving the voting system  14 voted against and five chose not to vote.   Interestingly, three of the five Liberal MPs elected in by-elections sicne 2011 voted against, one did not vote and only one voted for.

Here is how all the Liberal MPs voted: (the year is the first year they were elected)

Liberals Voting for Proportional Representation - 16 MPs 

• Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa—Vanier) 1995
• Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's) 1997
• Scott Brison (Kings—Hants) 1997 (Lib since 2003)
• Rodger Cuzner (Cape Breton—Canso) 2000
• Stéphane Dion (Saint-Laurent—Cartierville) 1996
• Kirsty Duncan (Etobicoke North) 2008
• Wayne Easter (Malpeque) 1993
• Mark Eyking (Sydney—Victoria) 2000
• Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) 1993
• Ted Hsu (Kingston and the Islands) 2011
• John McCallum (Markham—Unionville) 2000
• David McGuinty (Ottawa South) 2004
• John McKay (Scarborough—Guildwood) 1997
• Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra) 2008
• Frank Valeriote (Guelph) 2008
• Adam Vaughan (Trinity—Spadina) 2014

Liberals Voting against  Proportional Representation - 14 MPs 

• Gerry Byrne (Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte) 1996
• Emmanuel Dubourg (Bourassa) 2013
• Judy Foote (Random—Burin—St. George's) 2008
• Chrystia Freeland  (Toronto Centre) 2013
• Marc Garneau (Westmount—Ville-Marie)2008
• Ralph Goodale (Wascana) 1993 (was also MP 1974-79)
• Yvonne Jones (Labrador) 2013
• Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North) 2010
• Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour) 2000
• Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan) 1988
• Geoff Regan (Halifax West) 2000 (was also MP 1997-00)
• Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis) 2004
• Judy Sgro (York West) 1999
• Justin Trudeau (Papineau) 2008

Liberal MPs that did not vote

• Sean Casey (Charlottetown) 2011
• Arnold Chan (Scarborough—Agincourt) 2014
• Irwin Colter (Mount Royal) 1999
• Scott Simms (Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor) 2004
• Lise St-Denis (Saint-Maurice—Champlain) 2011 (Lib since 2012)

For the record, here is how the independents voted

Independents Voting For

• Maria Mourani (Ahuntsic) (former Bloc, now close to the NDP)
• Manon Perreault (Montcalm) (former NDP)
• Brent Rathgeber (Edmonton—St. Albert) (former Conservative)

Independents Voting Against

• Scott Andrews (Avalon) (former Liberal)
• Massimo Pacetti (Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel) (former Liberal)

Did not vote

• André Bellavance (Richmond—Arthabaska) (former Bloc)
• Sana Hassainia (Verchères—Les Patriotes) (former NDP)