Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is convinced electoral reform will be an election issue this fall, despite years of other political leaders trying to tackle the matter.

Trudeau鈥檚 predecessor, Michael Ignatieff, campaigned hard on electoral reform in 2011 without success; the Liberals lost their position as Official Opposition that year to the NDP.

But after 10 years of leadership under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Trudeau believes that electoral reform will be an election issue when Canadians head to the polls this October.

鈥淚 think the mood out there across the country is quite unmistakable,鈥� said Trudeau. 鈥淲hat Canadians understand very clearly is that actually changing the way we elect governments and changing the way governments behave leads to a much better quality of decision-making.鈥�

Last week, Trudeau proposed a 32-point plan to 鈥渞estore democracy in Canada.鈥� The plan proposes Canada do away with the first-past-the-post system in the next federal election.

If elected, Trudeau promises to introduce electoral legislation within 18 months of forming government, based on recommendations from an all-party parliamentary committee that would study alternatives, such as ranked ballots and proportional representation. The committee would also consider mandatory voting and online voting.

"We need to show Canadians that real change is possible," Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa earlier this week. "This place is broken. Together we are going to fix it."

But those words are familiar to Canadians. The late NDP leader Jack Layton campaigned on a similar slogan in the 2011 election.

Trudeau refused to acknowledge the similarities between his policy and that of the New Democrats.

鈥淭he Liberal Party has always been a party that looks at pragmatic solutions and ways of fulfilling the values that Canadians want to see from their government,鈥� said Trudeau. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been lots of ideas put forward by different political parties, by experts, about how to fix parliament.鈥�

Fight for the centre-left

Trudeau made his policy pitch days before Parliament rose for the summer break, and likely until after the election.

As MPs head to into the summer barbecue circuit, the fight for the centre-left is on, and recent polls haven鈥檛 been in the Liberals鈥� favour., 28 per cent of respondents said they preferred NDP Leader Tom Mulcair for prime minister, ahead of Trudeau at 26 per cent, but behind Harper鈥檚 29 per cent. Trudeau dismissed the polls.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 normal that polls go up and down,鈥� said Trudeau. 鈥淲e鈥檝e all seen what polls do and linking things too directly is always a bit of a mug鈥檚 game.鈥�