A motion put forward by Skeena-Bulkey Valley MP Nathan Cullen with the hope that government would move forward with the electoral reform was defeated. Cullen was one of a handful of all-party MPs that presented a final report about the electoral reform to the federal government last year. The report recommends a referendum to determine whether Canada should change its first-past-the-post voting system.

The motion requested the House of Commons to accept the electoral reform committee鈥檚 recommendations. However, only two Liberal MPs - Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Sean Casey - voted with the opposition in favour of the motion. During the last federal election, the Liberals committed to having a new voting system put in place before the next federal election.

鈥淭he prime minister made a black-and-white promise to Canadians to make 2015 the last election under first-past-the-post, and to make every vote count,鈥� said Cullen.

鈥淲hen the prime minister abandoned electoral reform, he said it was 鈥榟is decision to make鈥� 鈥� it was not,鈥� added Cullen.

Tens of thousands of Canadians participated in the consultation process. The committee found that 88 per cent of expert witnesses and 87 per cent of the public testimony before the committee called for the government to adopt a proportional voting system. In a proportional representation electoral system, the share of votes a party receives in an election is reflected in the number of seats they receive in the House of Commons.