A letter from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould on Wednesday (February 1) showed that the Liberal government would not be moving forward with promised electoral reforms.

MP Blake Richards said that while he was surprised by the bluntness of the announcement, he was not surprised by the news itself.

"The one surprise, I guess, was the way they did it. But in my mind, it's another in a series of broken promises."

At a press conference, Gould cited a lack of support by Canadians for the ditching of electoral reform. Richards said in consulting his constituents on the matter, he's found that people in Airdrie are not that concerned with electoral reform.

"There was a pretty clear majority that said that they would prefer our system as it is, and less consensus on what change would look like if they wanted one."

According to Richards, 91% of his constituents do think that if a change was to come, a referendum would need to take place first. Richards said his party holds the same view.

"I think from our perspective, all along our sole and very focused message has been there would have to be a referendum if you were going to make a change."

In Richards' mind, there are more pressing issues than electoral reform, such as economic issues that impact Alberta and Airdrie.

 

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