[taco.vidal]

First-past-the-post has long been viewed as the primary culprit behind declining turnout, contributing to Canadians’ belief that their votes don’t count.

Trudeau personally favours replacing it with preferential balloting, in which voters rank their first, second, third and subsequent choices. If no candidate receives an absolute majority on the first ballot, the last-place candidate is eliminated and his or her supporters’ second-choice votes are counted. That continues until one candidate receives over 50 per cent.

However, Trudeau has also said he’s willing to consider proportional representation, a more complex reform for which there are a variety of possible models. Essentially, it involves electing multiple representatives for each constituency, with the seats divvied up in proportion to the share of votes won by each party in each riding.

Others are new or build upon previous commitments. Among other things, Trudeau promised a Liberal government would:

• Reform question period in the House of Commons so that one day each week would be devoted solely to grilling the prime minister.
  
• Impose spending limits on political parties between elections, not just during election campaigns.
  
• Appoint an equal number of men and women to cabinet and adopt a government-wide appointment policy to ensure gender parity and greater representation of aboriginal people and other minorities.
  
• Create performance standards for services offered by the federal government, complete with streamlined application processes, reduced wait times and money-back guarantees.
  
• Create individualized, secure online accounts for Canadians who want to access all their government benefits and review key documents.
  
• Perhaps the most ambitious promise, however, is Trudeau’s vow to do away with first-past-the-post (FPTP) in time for the next election.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...-next-election