Electoral Reform committee  The latter being...sorry?

Electoral Reform committee  That is correct.

Electoral Reform committee  I'm going to have to yield to Mr. Mayrand and what he had indicated. The number he put forward—correct me if I'm wrong—was 24 months to conduct that process. They don't take offering those dates lightly, and I don't either. They will have gone through a serious exercise in order to come up with the estimate of 24 months.

Electoral Reform committee  I can certainly do that.

Electoral Reform committee  You're referencing the 2007 electoral process in which they brought together the Scottish parliamentary balloting at the same time as local government and they were using two different electoral systems. I was thinking about this earlier, and it's not usual for me to quote pop culture, but I was reminded of Smokey and the Bandit when they said they had a long way to go and a short time to get there.

Electoral Reform committee  I wouldn't be able to give you a number; however, I think that each electoral system has its challenges when it comes to local representation. On the first-past-the-post side, there is discussion of how much local representation there is, but on the proportional representation side, it's the same issue.

Electoral Reform committee  This was a direct response to the fact that studies show that having positions at the top or bottom of the ballot led to a disproportionate amount of support from what is termed “the donkey vote” in Australia. Basically, the donkey vote is those votes cast by citizens who have no interest in the election but do not want to be fined for not having voted.

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you. I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear today before the Special Committee on Electoral Reform. I would like to reiterate my interest in the topics being addressed here that aim to measure the strength of democracy in Canada and determine how the federal electoral process can contribute.