I think that's a great idea. One of our witnesses had mentioned before that sometimes having smaller ridings that include a high proportion of maybe aboriginal people or other racialized persons can really help that candidate succeed, and parties are forced to then perhaps run people from that community all across the board. I think that's very interesting, and that's been happening through our own system right now. I think that's what's causing the numbers to shift a bit, although we're not to the numbers we would like.
I have another question. You have confirmed in a way that you were voting for a party. Under certain systems at times you could have a vote for a party. You can also have a difference under STV, a list of lots of candidates who may all be from the same party and they are running against each other. If you don't know their individual platforms necessarily, or what kind of person they are, it would be quite difficult to rank them.
I saw that with my own nomination. We had a ranking system in our party nominations and it confused a lot of people. They didn't know the order to rank, what it meant to rank, and if they were supposed to put where you were located on the ballot, and they were supposed to indicate that number.
We went through those issues with a lot of people because they were used to a particular system of voting during the general election, and they didn't know how to vote in the nomination process. It was a totally different system. There's going to have to be a huge educational component. I do think it's necessary for us to have polling stations in these communities, just as we've been talking about having polling stations in schools and universities has brought up voter turnout among young people. Having polling stations seems like a no-brainer, and aboriginal communities would definitely make it inclusive.
I thank you for your input.