Thank you again to the witnesses. I know it's difficult testifying by video. We're all together here and looking at you disembodied on our screens.
I want to try to pursue the issue of closed party lists, first with the German academic team and then with our friends from Scotland.
Thank you, again, for taking such time and care to try to apply the German system to a Canadian model hypothetically. It's much appreciated, and I know it must have been a lot of work.
Looking at page 6 of your brief, where you describe what we would do to fill the party lists, you suggest, “The seats left may be filled from closed party lists. Closed lists encourage parties to promote social cohesion and to include underrepresented groups.”
Now, as you have probably suggested with your experience in Germany, some people don't want to know that the lists are closed; they want some access to them.
I wanted to ask particularly how.... You must be familiar, of course, with Baden-Württemberg, and their use of people who were on the constituency lists and failed to win a seat but had done very, very well. They become, as I understand it, the party choice to fill those seats.
Do you have any observations on how that works in practice?