Trudeau apologizes in House over misleading remarks on electoral reform delay

Prime Minister Justin Trudeauapologized to the House of Commons during question periodfor remarks he made to the mediaon Wednesday, alleging that the opposition was not co-operatingon electoral reform.

In apress conference heldto mark six months inpower for the Liberals, Trudeauhad been questionedabout the delayin addressing electoral reform.

"We have put forward a number of different ways that we will be examining this question, one of them is a parliamentary committee, one of them is direct engagement by the minister and the other is a form of public consultation,"he said.

He added thatthe Liberalsare in discussionwith the other parties regarding how to set up the committee, and he suggested thatthedelays were due to a lack of co-operation from the Conservatives and NDP, who would not give consent without unreasonable preconditions.

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During question period on Thursday,Conservative MP Scott Reid arguedthat was not the case at all. He said the story Trudeau was telling of opposition delay was "invented and patently false."

Reid said that in the past six months he has only met twice with Minister of DemocraticInstitutionsMaryam Monsef,briefly, and he added that the same was true for his NDP counterpart.

Trudeauapologized for his misleadingremarks, and said, "Mr. Speaker, Iapologize through you to the member of the House. We are engaged in many different processes and on the focus of electoral reform we know how important it is and how passionately members of this House feel about it, and Ilook forward to ensuring we get moving on this committee in short order."

Monsef alsoaddressed the House, reminding members that her door is always open for discussion. She remainedconfident that the campaignpromise would be upheld.

"We will deliver on our commitment to modernize our electoral system," she told the House.

According to Trudeau's remarks on Wednesday, thepublic consultation on electoral reformwill be unveiled in the coming weeks.