Electoral Reform committee  That's a good question. I think both are the same. The type of member who comes from a list is elected by all their party members. That's definitely beneficial. However, I would say that I still prefer the MPs who run in a constituency, because they will truly represent their region's interests in the House of Commons.

Electoral Reform committee  At our next general meeting, we could invite the seniors' representatives, and, in turn, young people could talk to the Réseau FADOQ. The young and the old have different interests, but they are complementary. So it could be interesting to work together, especially on electoral reform, a subject that affects us all.

Electoral Reform committee  We are in favour of voting on university and college campuses. Provincially, in the last election, Quebec's Chief Electoral Officer allowed that kind of voting for the first time. The effect was excellent; the turnout rate for young people and students went up. I did not talk about it earlier, but it certainly would be helpful to encourage polling stations on college and university campuses, even in schools providing professional diploma courses to mature students.

Electoral Reform committee  In terms of electoral reform, I presented the basics of what we want. Of course, we came to that decision after holding a round table, a group that brought together members of our Regroupement's board of directors and other young people from the CÉGEP. Of course, we are going to continue to consult our members at a general meeting to make sure we have the most accurate point of view.

Electoral Reform committee  I will give you my personal opinion as an answer because I have not consulted the members of the Regroupement about it. I personally would support the voting age going to 16, providing, of course, that the provinces were to reform the education system in order to provide a more complete course in civics or politics.

Electoral Reform committee  That is a viable option. We never pushed our study that far. However, I would add that, even though we keep very large constituencies, members elected from voters' lists could help to represent a territory. They could be assigned a territory that might clearly be larger than one constituency and could cover two or three constituencies.

Electoral Reform committee  This is a good time to say what puts young people off most. It's the voting system itself, because it doesn't encourage people to participate. When young people, or anyone, live in a really safe constituency, one that belongs to one party, but they do not want to vote for that party, they will not vote at all, because they know that their votes will not matter, will not be counted.

Electoral Reform committee  In fact, I think that the reform can be proposed and planned. A project to reform the Canada Elections Act can be tabled, but before it is adopted, it needs to be approved by the population in order that the party in power not use the reform of the Canada Elections Act for partisan ends.

Electoral Reform committee  No, in fact...

Electoral Reform committee  The ridings would be larger, since there would be fewer MPs representing ridings, but we would maintain the ridings.

Electoral Reform committee  The point of view we have presented today is that of the Joliette association, but we also consulted the other students in Quebec to obtain a more representative opinion.

Electoral Reform committee  As I mentioned, there would have to be a double majority. And so the majority of the population of Canada, that is to say 13 million electors out of 25 million, and also the majority of the provinces, would have to accept that option, otherwise it would be rejected. Six of the 10 Canadian provinces would have to agree.

Electoral Reform committee  We didn't really examine that. We focused on the voting system itself. We feel local representation is clearly important. That is why we would like the first-past-the-post system to be maintained in the ridings. We certainly need a system that better represents the population's wishes, in order to avoid situations such as we have seen in the past, where the governing party is not necessarily the one that obtained the most votes.

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee for allowing the youth of Joliette to express its opinion in this consultation. This debate has gone on for quite some time at the Regroupement des étudiants et étudiantes du Cegep de Lanaudière. We consulted several organizations that advocate electoral change, such as the Mouvement pour une démocratie nouvelle.