Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, committee members, and other members of the public, thank you very much for the invitation to appear before your committee today. As mentioned, my name is John Leslie Hollins. I was the Chief Electoral Officer for the Province of Ontario from 200

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Completely neutral.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. The political entity stayed away from it per se.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, I was not.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm really of mixed opinions on this for a couple of reasons. Yes, it obviously saves money if that's the purpose, and of course you would do that. Does it cloud the issue? In my experience, I would suggest it did. There were two horses in the race fighting all the way along--the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The decision was clear: it was 63% one way and 37% the other. Would the 111,000, if they had been included on either side of that, have made a difference? They would not whatsoever. To me, the 111,000 suggests that not everybody was there to vote for the referendum. They just cle

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. In fact, from the education perspective, we started in the month of June. That was when we were handed the education portfolio. Right away we polled to see how many people understood what was going on and felt comfortable that they could actually make a decision. We ran at a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe that there will always be people pushing that agenda. Are they getting less press time today than they were then? Yes, they are.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't know that the Legislative Assembly is even talking about it at this point.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Because I trust the political entity entirely, I don't know that I would ever suggest that it would take advantage of a situation like that. I'm not convinced that they should be run at the same time, actually, because I think the waters become muddy; however, I don't know what

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that would fly in the face of our right to not participate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I guess the comparison would be with the question whether or not, if a candidate runs and doesn't get a certain percentage, you allow them to take their seat.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct.