I'm actually not sure that a referendum is necessary on this issue.
I noted that one of your previous witnesses argued—assuming there was a new system proposed by this committee—that since something like MMP would alter, as I understood him, the way in which the Governor General would receive advice about forming a government, it would touch on the Constitution and that therefore this is in fact a constitutional issue.
Although he was making this argument—I'm embarrassed to say that I don't remember his name—he wasn't concluding from it that there needed to be a referendum. He was concluding, on the contrary, that there ought to be an election. If this were referred back to the House and the government were to take up whatever the recommendation was, it would be an occasion for further debate in an election rather than a referendum.
It was interesting to me, though.... Again, I think this is a question that is within the jurisdiction of Parliament to come up with. Here I'm perhaps going beyond my expertise, but we have changed the electoral system in the past. We have introduced the secret ballot. We have widened the franchise. We have done those kinds of things, and we've done them by acts of Parliament.