Banff-Airdrie Member of Parliament Blake Richards is asking constituents for their feedback on the Trudeau Liberal Government's plans to change Canada’s voting system.

According to Richards, recent polls show the majority of Canadians think a referendum is needed before the government can make changes to the way MP's are elected.

He explains the Liberal Minister responsible for eliminating the system Canada has used to elect its representatives for the last 149 years, says a committee of her party’s choosing will create the plan for a new electoral system.

Richards says changing the way Canadians vote in Federal Elections should not be taken lightly.

"It can affect who forms the government, how that government is formed, and therefore the legislative agenda for the entire country." he says. "It's something that I think shouldn't be decided by politicians or political parties, it has to be something that the Canadian people themselves have to decide."

He believes when politicians make decisions about how they are elected, it could be clouded by self interest.

"That certainly has been the kind of allegations we've heard about the Liberals, people believe they're looking to change the system to something that will benefit them and their chances in the next election."

The Liberals have called on Canadians to plan and organize their own consultations on electoral reform, providing a how to guide online for communities wishing to host discussions on the topic.
Richards says the "go consult yourselves" concept is ludicrous.

"The idea that a bunch of coffee meetings or townhall meetings somehow will get the same input from Canadians as having a referendum is laughable. You'd have to have over 100,000 types of meetings like that to even come near the turn out you'd get from a referendum."

He believes there's tons of examples on how electoral reform should be managed.

"We've had three provinces in this country that have looked at electoral reform, and all three of them have held referendums on the proposal. When you look other Commonwealth countries that have made these changes, referendums were held there as well.  There's very clear precedent this is the way it should be done, in my mind to do it in any other way is a slap in the face to the Canadian people."

You can have your say on if you'd like to see a referendum done before any changes to the federal electoral system here.