I have to be blunt. I think this is a wrong image. Every vote counts—every vote. Everybody's vote was counted. You came out first, and you know full well that it illustrates the point I made at the beginning. You know full well that most people voted against you, which makes you, I would expect, a much better member of Parliament, because you are open to hearing what other people have said to you. It makes you more sensitive to the needs of the population. It makes you more sensitive to their difficulties with government. It makes you more aware of how your office back home can be helpful to them regardless of whether they voted for you.
I think this is what Canadians want. This is a fiction that their votes don't count, or every other system is going to have a system in which their votes don't count. It can be PR: If you're going to raise the level to 15%, you're practically where we are now. If you're going to lower it to 3%, then you're going to run a huge risk of having all sorts of regional and sectoral parties emerging.
I don't think there's something wrong with your getting 35%. It may sound ugly, but at the end of the day you're a good member of Parliament, you're going to do a great job during the four years that you're there, and maybe you'll be defeated and it's going to hurt and I'm really sorry.
I had a former MP who came to my class. I wanted to talk about budgets, and she talked for an hour about how she was heartbroken by the fact that the voters turned her away and did not vote for her party or for her. It wasn't personal. Thank goodness, she's been re-elected to Parliament and she's one of your colleagues, who will remain nameless.