Hello, my name is Mark Thompson.
I have thought of what I think is a really good idea for a new election system. It's a very simple system. We run the election the same way we do now. We elect the first 338 members as is. We then add 33% more seats to the House of Commons. We then fill those seats with candidates who received a high percentage of votes in their riding but didn't win. We fill them based on their party and which province they're in, in a way that the overall result matches the popular vote as closely as possible.
What makes this a good system is that it is, one, very simple, I explained it in 30 seconds. Two, it involves very little change from the voters' perspective. There are no changes to the ballot; there's no change to the ridings; there are no lists. From the voters' perspective they don't even have to learn the system. They don't have to learn any new way of voting. They can vote exactly the way they vote now; all that changes is the result.
If you're planning a referendum, I think it's very important that whatever system you choose is very simple and easy to explain to Canadians. If it's overly complex people are going to reject it just because they don't understand it.
I'm going to suggest that you choose my system, which I call first few past the post because in some ridings you'll have two members of Parliament.
Are there any questions?