Fear of both proportional representation, including the possible emergence of fringe or even alt-right parties, and a potentially divisive national referendum led Justin Trudeau's government to abandon his promise of electoral reform, according to a senior Liberal source. The Liberals regularly repeated that promise through their first 15 months in office, but on Wednesday the government announced electoral reform was no longer a priority. "But the more he thought about proportional representation, the more he thought it was exactly the wrong system for a big, regionally and culturally diverse country." In the House, Trudeau said reform might produce "an augmentation of extremist voices in the House," a potential result that is sometimes associated with proportional representation. The Liberal cabinet is said to have been overwhelmingly opposed to proportional representation, which aims to allot seats in the legislature in proportion to the national popular vote.

Source: CBC News February 03, 2017 10:00 UTC