Evidence of meeting #110 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was political.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
This is a more empirical question. How do young Canadians rank? Do you do research and rank them globally in terms of their political knowledge?
NDP
Prof. Henry Milner
If you take all democracies.... I haven't received very recent numbers, and perhaps they're better, but when I was researching this, we were down at the bottom, not quite as bad as the Americans, but certainly not nearly as good as the Europeans, the British, and the Australians.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Not quite as bad as the folks who elected Trump, but not nearly at the range of more functioning democracies.
Prof. Henry Milner
Right. It's not that easy to do testing where, since institutions are different, you have to give a certain amount of leeway. Overall, among countries—as I said, all democracies—it's clear that Americans are lower in terms of basic political knowledge. What percentage of the people eligible to vote have the minimal knowledge to vote? That's the sort of question we ask in our comparative research. We ask it for the overall, and then we ask it for young people.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
To circle back, if knowledge, education, and engagement were a high priority for the government, one of the most effective tools of doing that was total reform.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
No, it doesn't happen in one election, but over the course of time, you want a more engaged and more educated voter, particularly young voters.
Prof. Henry Milner
It's not the only factor, but it could have a positive effect. I have made that argument, and I still make that argument. It's one of the arguments I've made in Quebec.
NDP
Prof. Henry Milner
We'll see.
If I could just add, I think you're going to find the result in Ontario will, in fact, be an impetus for electoral reform. I think very strongly.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
Thank you.
Thank you, Professor Milner. It's nice to see you again.
I was on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform, and we got to meet there.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
We had you in a few times. You had great testimony then, and of course your work is very valuable to this committee.
It may be hard to believe from a reasonable man like yourself, but there are parties that are interested in not having this legislation move forward as quicky as possible; hence, the worry that we won't be able to get it done for your court procedure, but I really hope that we do.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
I hope there are ways you don't have to.... It's not the final...?
Prof. Henry Milner
I don't know the legal process. As far as I know, it would make no sense. If the court, in fact, throws out the Fair Elections Act, which personally I don't think that the constitutional argument is that strong.... I think it was a bad law, but the argument that it's unconstitutional—and I'm not a lawyer—I think is hard to make, so I don't think that would happen. Even if it did happen, it wouldn't change anything, really, because this process would continue.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
From time to time, I know you would understand there are parties that are interested in voter suppression and not necessarily bringing out everyone who's eligible to vote.
Prof. Henry Milner
In the United States, I would make that as a clear statement. There have been real efforts to do just that.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
We did have a case in Guelph where there were robocalls giving people the wrong information, leading them to not vote when they were eligible.
