Mr. Speaker, there is a rich literature on this. The committee is lucky in that several citizen assemblies in British Columbia and Ontario have already been held. We can benefit from the work that has already been done by those bodies, but the academic literature is rich.
A study was done of 36 democratic countries. It was empirically established that those countries with voting systems that ensure that every vote counts, those systems that can be categorized as consensus-based voting as opposed to majoritarian oppositional voting, have a more civil discourse, have higher voter turnout, have stronger macroeconomic results, have stronger social justice, better social safety nets, better environmental protection, more women elected to parliaments, and more minorities elected to parliaments.
We do not have to rely on opinions or party positions. When we really start to study this we will find that a lot of the work has already been done and it is clear that those systems that are proportional are fairer and produce better results.