Evidence of meeting #37 for Electoral Reform in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was seats.
As an Individual
Yes, they could, across the country, but it will all add up to the NDP having the correct weighting.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
I'm just wondering whether this could become a problem, because within the same party, we often have opportunities to sit on fabulous committees like this one and travel with the committee. If my vote were to be a little more than my colleague's vote, then perhaps I wouldn't have the opportunity to go on that committee, because there might be a lot of important legislation and bills being passed back home. The same goes for ministers. I don't know. It just seems that the whip's job would be a lot more complicated in trying to figure out whose vote was worth what, whom to keep behind, and whom to send out.
As an Individual
I think it would be only for voting in Parliament. When it comes to committees, that's up to the party.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia
I think what Ms. Sahota is saying is that when committees like ours travel, they are absent from the votes in the House, so that affects the parties.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Those are things we should probably look at as well. There are things we have been discussing about making changes to Parliament, but as the current system stands, we don't have any of that, so I think that would complicate things.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Ms. Reid. Good afternoon, Mr. Dixon.
You just saw first-hand what we have been observing: when witnesses share with us ideas that appear to be simple, those ideas are actually much more complicated when you really look at them—
As an Individual
I can't hear anything. I'm going to try to understand what you're saying.
There we go.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
I think you, like many in the room today, just realized that seemingly straightforward ideas or proposals presented to the committee become a whole lot more complicated when we try to apply those ideas to Parliament.
Ms. Reid, my first question is for you. Under your model, are a certain number of members added to the existing 338, or does the number of members stay the same?
As an Individual
Do you add more members of Parliament? You have a choice. You can add more members of Parliament, you can ask provinces to redistribute their seats, or you can offer a compromise—i.e, we'll give you one seat, and you make a seat within Newfoundland and Labrador.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
So you don't have a concrete suggestion at the moment. Under your model, you aren't suggesting that the number of seats be reduced in the case of proportional voting or added; nor are you suggesting some compromise. Is that correct?
As an Individual
I'm not committed to saying that you need to have absolutely two seats per province. If it's of interest to the committee, it's for the committee to decide on two seats per province. I chose two seats because Atlantic Canada doesn't have any Conservatives or NDP members.
That was a suggestion. It's up to the committee, if the system looks at all enticing, to figure out what would be good.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
Great.
Mr. Dixon, what you said really intrigued me. You haven't spoken much.
From what you're hearing, where do the youth you represent stand on the current voting system and electoral reform? If they aren't satisfied with the current model, what do they propose to improve the electoral system? Changing the voting system? Taking other measures?
President, Newfoundland and Labrador Youth Parliament
That's interesting.
What are their opinions on the current system? I think the general consensus on the current system among the youth I've spoken to, when they get a grasp of the system—it's a big issue in terms of the education behind it—is this. I had a professor who once described electoral systems as certain...things that are not appropriate, I guess, for the committee. Take “MMP”: it sounds kind of bad. You get all these names, and there's a lot of confusion around it.
I think the first step is that when they do understand how our systems work, you can then proceed to a conversation, but for the most part, most students I've talked to do not want to see the first-past-the-post system. The Prime Minister said that this would be the last election in which we had first past the post. Almost every youth I've spoken to who is knowledgeable about the system, who is educated about the system, voted in the hope that this actually would be the last election with first past the post.
Right now we don't feel our vote counts. I think many youth do feel this way. This current system exhibits this culture of “your vote won't count”. I think for us that's a big problem, because we probably don't feel that we're being taken seriously.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
I have a question about young people and politics.
How much understanding would you say young people have of the current political system? On a scale of 1 to 10, what level of understanding do 18- to 25-year-olds have when it comes to our current political system?
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
Yes. I'd just like to know your opinion; I'm not expecting you to give me scientific data.
President, Newfoundland and Labrador Youth Parliament
Okay. It's probably 1.5, and I'm being really honest. If you think about it and take a look at the education systems and the curricula that are imposed on students within their systems, and then look at the difference between urban schools and rural schools, you see that the education systems can sometimes differ greatly. The problem is that we're not being taught civics. We have no idea. We have no idea how Parliament works or why we should even care. We can't even answer the simple question, “Why do politics matter? I don't care about that.” We can't even answer that.
In terms of our general knowledge, there's no way we can have knowledge, because it's not even taught in our schools. I took a political science course in grade 12, which was an optional course, and I took it because I'm a bit of a nerd. That's the problem right there. It was an option. I had an option to do it. There was nothing from the point when I was in kindergarten. There was nothing from grade 1 to12. Nothing. I think once you start looking at that as your fundamental problem, then maybe we can move on this idea of how we engage people and how we get people interested in politics.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
You've just confirmed what a number of youth groups have told us. In their view, the biggest priority, even before we get into thinking about electoral reforms, would be to provide civic education. If they had that education, they may not be as favourable to changing the voting system, given that young people have trouble understanding the one we have now.
I bring it up because, when we talk to people and ask them what they would really like to see, one of the first things that emerges is the connection to their local representative. Under a proportional voting system, that aspect is, to some extent, lost. That what I'm trying to wrap my head around.
Thank you.