Electoral Reform committee  I think the idea of trying to take stock, before you go on the road, of the advice and testimony you have heard is quite an interesting one. It may be that behind closed doors all members of the committee have come to a common definition of the problem. I am not aware of that. C

Electoral Reform committee  That is exactly why the debate on values and principles is so important. Even if citizens form constituent assemblies, we will do whatever we want if, during the debate, the first things discussed are the mechanisms and voting systems and whether we want one system or another. I

Electoral Reform committee  I don't necessarily want to speak to the specific issue of public funding for political parties. However, once we have greater clarity about the debate happening around this table, we will have to see where it fits into the greater governance picture. What would more coalitions

Electoral Reform committee  Not in my view; I think it's a compelling argument.

Electoral Reform committee  In support of what Professor Scott just said, I think it is precisely because there is no imminent crisis that this kind of work needs to happen now. But I would add that it emphasizes the importance of public education and bringing along voters and citizens as a necessary compon

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. Since it began holding hearings, the committee has met many experts who have spoken about the characteristics of various voting systems, the experiences of different count

Procedure and House Affairs committee  For my part, I agree entirely with Ms. Des Rosiers. My first concern is that we do not know what impact this is going to have. We don't know who will be the most affected, nor whether there will be differences from region to region or according to demographic groups. I think that

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We need to preserve the public education function, for sure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think giving the investigator the ability to compel witnesses would be a positive addition to the bill.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll leave it to experts to express a definitive view on that. I would say the expertise currently resides at the privacy commission, so I would start there. And I think I would look at the Privacy Act and at extending certain provisions to political party activity—and I think it

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's a fair comment, and I would say a separate bill could deal with that as well, but it's definitely a policy gap that we have identified, that others have identified, and that needs to be dealt with.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would agree with Taylor. I think there's a lot of room for important changes to the bill, but I think if those changes come through it will help.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Based on our work, it would have to be no.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That time period is beyond the scope of our report. However, I would say that one year is definitely better than what we have now, which is nothing. I completely agree with you. Given that the marginal additional costs of keeping that record once it has been put together for pe

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, that goes beyond the scope of the work we conducted. There was certainly a lot of discussion in our group of experts about whether we should consider enhancing the investigative powers of the Commissioner of Canada Elections. Generally speaking, I think our group would h