Liberal changes to electoral system 'set up to fail,' says defeated NDP MP Craig Scott

A defeatedNDP MP says he does not trust prime minister-designate Justin Trudeauto fulfil his bold promise to reform Canada's electoral system.

"I honestly do not believe thatat the leadership level of the Liberal Party there is a commitment to proportional representation," Craig Scott said in an interview with Terry Milewski on CBC'sPower & Politics.

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Scott, who went down to a stunningdefeat inToronto-Danforth, the riding of former NDP leaderJackLayton,penned a "frustrated"Facebookpost in the aftermath of his party's defeat.

He calledhis former Liberal colleagues in the House of Commons"lazy" and "arrogantly waiting for the messiah to take them back to the promised land of power."

Scott saidhe has reached out to Liberal MPs, individually, to say he shouldn't have used such inflammatory language.

But he maintains that he isgenuinely concerned about prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau'scommitment to changing the wayCanadians vote.

"The questionreally is whether or notthe Liberals have set something up to fail."

"The Liberals did a very good job at making people think they're either openor, in some on-the-ground campaigns,committed to proportional representation," Scott said,

"[In fact] they never, ever, committed to proportional representation."

The Liberal Party did, however, promisein its party platform to strikean all-party parliamentary committee to study electoral reform.

Proportional representation, ranked ballotsandelectronic and mandatory votingare among the electoral changes that could be "fully and fairly"studied by the committee, the party said.

Trudeaupromises end to 1stpastthepost

The Liberalcommitment to change the electoral system dates back to a party policy conference inJanuary 2012.

At the time, party membersvoted 73 per centin favour of implementing preferential ballots for all future federal elections.

"Will it help us?" Trudeau said at the time, "Me,I am a fairly polarizing figure, it might actually harm me in my own riding, but I think it is a good thing for Canada that we move towards this," he said.

Throughout the campaign, Trudeau consistentlyvowedthatthe general election on Oct. 19 wouldbe the last one using the first-past-the-post voting system.

But Scott saidhe doesn't trust the party thatjust won39.5 per cent of the vote but a commandingmajority of seats in the House of Commonsto actually move forward with a system of proportional representation.