Thank you all for being here and thank you to the residents of St-Pierre-Jolys for joining us today. Thank you, retired Professor Kidd, for putting so much work into your proposal. I'm trying to ask a few more questions of Professor Koop first. I hope I'll have time to get to both of you.
I'm looking at some articles you wrote for the Ottawa Citizen. I wanted to pick up on one of the points you made in the article "No assembly required for electoral reform". I was interested in the observation there, and I'm hoping you remember it, of the notion of a referendum and the populist impulse it represents. You're quoting a professor from the University of Calgary, Rainer Knopff, in saying that it's one of twin threats to representative democracy. The other being strong party discipline.
I wonder if you could expand on that point, because there is a notion that somehow we must have a referendum. It comes up now and then. The question is in responsible government citizens elect members of Parliament and we're supposed to deliberate and within the sphere of things that Parliament can determine, we're supposed to decide them. I hadn't heard of Professor Knopff's theory, so I turn it to you.