Like a drunken Vaudeville performer the Trudeau government is doing a ham-fisted jig away from its promise to create a new federal voting system in this country.

It’s awkward to watch.

In the lead-up to the 2015 election now-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged that if the Liberals formed government that election would be the last to utilize single-member plurality – the first-past-the-post system.

Canadians of course handed Trudeau a majority last October and the government got to work fulfilling the electoral reform promise. An all-party parliamentary committee was struck and MPs spent the summer and fall collecting feedback from constituents on electoral reform that feedback given to the committee.

When the committee tabled its report early this month its recommendation was that the government hold a national referendum on whether Canadians wanted to stick with the first-past-the-post system or switch to some form of proportional representation.

Many Canadians favour the idea of proportional representation a system used by a number of countries in Europe which would have the makeup of the House of Commons more accurately reflect the way voters cast their ballots. Clearly the feedback received by the committee reflected this desire is widespread.

The government was none too happy about it. On Dec. 1 Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef launched a bizarre attack against the all-party committee in the House saying it hadn’t done its job.

Monsef apologized for her comments the next day.

Then the government launched mydemocracy.ca which in the words of its homepage “is an innovative way to join the conversation on electoral reform.”

The survey poses a bunch of vague questions asking respondents to pick the situations they like best.

At no time does it mention any specific alternative voting systems. It reads more like one of those personality quizzes you can take on the Internet to tell you which Star Wars character you are  than anything designed to implement change in the electoral system.

Some of the questions seem to attach a negative connotation to a system resembling proportional representation.

“Would you a favour a more complicated but accurate voting system even if it meant all of your family would die in a fiery fiery car crash?”

OK that question was not part of the survey but you get the idea.

Then there was the photo op with Monsef holding a picture of a quadratic equation the implication being that proportional representation is too complicated for Canadians to understand.

It would be nice if federal governments would stop treating Canadians like they’re morons. Harper did it by trying to frighten voters into believing ISIS could be waiting for them in the backyard when they got home (and look where it got him) and now Trudeau is doing it with electoral reform.

While it’s unclear exactly where the bizarre story surrounding electoral reform will go from here it’s becoming pretty clear that Trudeau is likely to break what was one of his major campaign promises.

After all why would you change the rules of a game you’re winning?