Wile E. Coyote, were he not a cartoon character, might have seen a lot of himself in Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef this past week.

There she was, proudly displaying a printout of the formula for the Gallagher Index to the gathered press, ridiculing it for being too complex.  A minister of a government that revels in talk of "evidence-based policy-making" making fun of a way to measure — to gather evidence — how an electoral system balances total votes with total seats.  She's wearing an enormous grin, completely unaware she's standing in mid-air, already three steps off the cliff.

You almost expected the minister to turn her piece of paper around to reveal a "Help!" sign, just as she plummeted earthward.

It wasn't long after this she found herself apologizing for insulting the members of the electoral reform committee, and people who aren't reflexively terrified of square roots.

From there, things took a bit of weird turn.  Here she was this week, standing in the Commons defending the government's MyDemocracy.ca survey, which looks to poll Canadians on what their core values are when it comes to voting.  Monsef talked up the intellectual rigour of the survey, praising the academics that helped create it.

Which is weird, yeah?  Last week she was mocking a sort-of complex math formula, and now she's praising a bunch of academics for helping with an online survey that's going to spit out statistically weighted results.  It is as though after apologizing for doing something bad last week, we're supposed to also believe the bad thing never happened.

But this isn't new.  Monsef has never shown herself adept at leading the electoral reform file.  Early on, she found herself backtracking when the makeup of the Parliamentary committee studying reform over-represented Liberals, and didn't include a Bloc or Green member.

She has on multiple occasions said a referendum vote would be too difficult and confusing for the average citizen to decide on something so important as electoral reform.  This, despite voters' ability to pick an MP, and government, by selecting from an array of candidates with varying views on a series of issues.  Monsef has said Canadians voted in a government that promised electoral reform, so there's no need for a referendum.  Even though the central premise of needing electoral reform is that the current electoral system is broken.

Tasked with the most political of assignments, to change the structure of our elections, the rookie minister and MP has time and again proven herself not up to the task.

Perhaps this all could have been avoided.  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could have been clear from the start what his preferred version of reform was, then sent his minster out to explain why his government felt it was best.

Alas, instead we get vague notions the prime minister maybe preferring a "ranked ballot" system.  But, because Trudeau hasn't laid out his goals, the opposition has questioned every move the government has made, arguing it was rigging the show to bring about whatever outcome it secretly wants.

Instead of fighting for the system they desire, the Liberals are forced to fight shadows and plead for more consultations.

It's in this environment the idea the government's poor performance is part of some grand Liberal strategy to purposely sink democratic reform has cropped up.  The thinking goes they don't actually want reform because they've got their majority government, so they want a way out from their promise.  But the idea any government would go to such lengths to break a campaign promise, by purposefully being too inept to make it work, is much harder to believe than the idea they're simply too inept to make it work.

Throw into this mix a rookie politician, and you've got a recipe for disaster.  Monsef has been given every opportunity to improve her performance, and each time she falls short.  Maybe the minister wouldn't be cratering so spectacularly if she had more to work with.  But this is all she's going to get.

It's time for the Liberal government to clearly state what they want, and put someone competent in charge of selling it.