Electoral Reform Committee on July 26th, 2016

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

I'd like to come back to a point I've raised a number of times.

Members of the general public didn't mention this issue to me during the last election campaign, they haven't mentioned it to me since the start of the mandate, and they haven't uttered a peep about it to me since the committee began sitting. The only time people mention it is when I tell them that I'm going to Ottawa for a week in July to discuss electoral reform. They ask me what I'm talking about, and once I explain it, their response is “really”.

Apart from political activists, who certainly have their place in our democracy, people aren't concerned about this. If we are going to make a major change, the least we should do is hold a referendum.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Very good.

We'll wrap things up with Ms. Sahota.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Thank you.

I didn't know I'd actually get the opportunity. My question was framed more in terms of Professor Russell's work, but perhaps you can also comment, Mr. Dutil. I wanted to learn a little bit more about the Jenkins Commission, and the process they undertook. Is that something you're familiar with? If not then I can rephrase it.

[Prof. Patrice Dutil]

The Jenkins?

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

The U.K. commission. I know that Mr. Russell had looked into that a little bit as well. They also went through the process of looking into reforming the electoral system. Could you comment on their outcome? They had looked a lot into AV+. That's a system we haven't really talked a lot about; we've been looking at STV.

[Prof. Patrice Dutil]

Quite frankly, I didn't follow the results of that commission closely. What I followed was the referendum that was held afterwards, and that's what mattered to me. I think the British did it correctly. They organized a committee, they put the question to the people, and they got the result.

Can I respond to the question you asked Professor Russell? I didn't get a chance to talk.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Absolutely.

[Prof. Patrice Dutil]

I think you asked the question about, what can we do, or it might have been your neighbour, to better connect MPs to their constituents.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

That was my question.

[Prof. Patrice Dutil]

There are two things that I have been aware of because I spearheaded them. One of them was the Parliament to campus program that was run by the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians. Unfortunately, that program was cut off because of lack of funding a few years ago, but I ran it as a director for three years, and my job was to bring former members of Parliament to university campuses and to share with students in politics the life of the MP. One of the motivations there was to get people to understand the role of the local MP, and what they do, and to entice younger people to consider a career in politics. That's one thing.

The second thing, as I mentioned earlier, was at Ryerson I started a program where we placed students in members of Parliament's offices for a credit. They work with you for a day a week during 10 weeks and they write a paper about it, and they get a credit for it. It's unique in Canada, but again if you want to build awareness of the very important role you play it sometimes has to be done one by one, but these kids are fantastic, and it's a great way of motivating people.

A third thing I want to bring out a little bit if I have a second is Samara Canada. We talked about Samara earlier. It has put together a pilot project where they get together with recent arrivals to Canada and they teach them about our political system. We know that recent immigrants once they become citizens do not tend to participate in elections. It's one of the reasons why the rate is a bit lower. This is, again, a great project that could be continued with the proper funding to help those new arrivals, new Canadian citizens, learn more about our system. There are a lot of things that can be done, without changing the system, to better educate Canadians about their political life and political institutions.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I think those are great ways to engage our population. I definitely participated in similar programs at the high school and university levels. We've heard from other witnesses that teaching this in school, and Mr. Russell was talking about it, and having these types of programs at a young age, tends to engage them at that age, and they become lifetime voters.

[Prof. Patrice Dutil]

It's absolutely fundamental. Again, Professor Russell indicates that Ontario is one of the few provinces that has a civics course required in high school. Ontario is one of only four provinces that teaches history in high school. We have a lot of work to do to educate our population about the institutions that govern us, and I think, again, that it is something that needs to be addressed. Now, from a federal perspective, it's obviously difficult, but you can also make an argument that this needs to happen.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you.

I just want to thank you for all your testimony here today. It was quite enlightening.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Indeed.

Thank you very much for being with us today, gentlemen. It was quite a lively discussion, and we certainly learned a lot.

I want to remind the committee members that we will be meeting this evening at seven o'clock in room C-110 of the building located at 1 Wellington Street. We'll be hearing from representatives of New Zealand's and Australia's electoral commissions by video conference.

Thank you for your co-operation. See you shortly.

The meeting is adjourned.