By Amy Chen
Social media is abuzz with Liberal Party supporters publicly abandoning their membership, some going as far as to tweet photos of themselves cutting up their party membership cards, after their leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to renege on his long-held promise to change the way Canadians elect their Members of Parliament.
Disillusioned supporters also plastered the Prime Minister’s Facebook page with angry comments expressing their sense of betrayal.
“Progressive Canadians have been betrayed today,” Francis Santiago tweeted as he cut up his Liberal Party membership card.
“This may not be the place for it, but I notice you aren’t sharing that you’ve backed out of electoral reform,” Darian Tichler of Vancouver, BC, wrote on Trudeau’s Facebook page. “This was a key reason why the youngest demographic voted for you. You’ve lost my vote and that of many others because of this. Thank you for YOUR service, we’ll be voting for the real progressives next time around.”
“Bringing refugees to Canada is good, but your #1 most important promise was that 2015 would be Canada’s last FPTP election,” Jeffery Nichols of Edmonton Alberta, wrote. “I was going to vote for you in 2019, but now I will actively campaign to defeat you.”
“Mr. Trudeau, although I believe that you are a decent man, your outright deception on electoral reform is inexcusable and unforgivable” Darren Evorglens of Oakville, Ontario wrote. “You will not be voted back into power again. You have lost a fan who was in your corner defending you.”
“His decision to ignore electoral reform is going to haunt him and be a big reason for his future loss,” Deborah Dewson Bray of Montreal, Quebec, wrote about the Prime Minister.
“He has disappointed Canadians not because he’s not going forward with the reform but because he broke his word and therefore the trust we placed in him. He’s not a man of his word. He’s like every other power hungry politician and that’s very sad.”
“Not reforming the electoral system is based on greed for power, not for what is in Canada’s best interest,” Jared Savage, also from Montreal, wrote. “Way to lose my confidence and my vote.”
Prime Minister Trudeau justified the decision in his mandate letter to Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould stating that “a clear preference for a new electoral system, let alone a consensus, has not emerged.”
