Electoral Reform committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee for their kind invitation to contribute to their important work. I can see that you are working hard this summer. I will start by saying a few words about the Institute for Research on Public Policy. Founded in 1972,

Electoral Reform committee  I just have three bullet points otherwise the logic will be lost.

Electoral Reform committee  The single transferable vote allows ranking, but it also allows people to go within the party lists, so their choice is greater there. Closed proportional representation has a limited choice because people vote only for the list. It's a bit like ours: you vote for one candidate,

Electoral Reform committee  I lean towards a referendum for an eventual model. I realize that's answering in the abstract and without any consideration of what might happen between today and some point later on in the process. I do so for a couple of reasons, one is a question of democratic legitimacy. Th

Electoral Reform committee  Just to finish up, I reiterate Professor LeDuc's comment that you cannot divorce a referendum from a public education campaign. In B.C. they did quite well in that regard, in some other jurisdictions not so well, including in Ontario.

Electoral Reform committee  Okay. I said it doesn't give you “much” advantage—

Electoral Reform committee  —because you rank one candidate per party, whereby it doesn't give you any advantages to go within the party. Open party lists and STV in a sense incorporate some of the principles of the primary into the electoral system. You get to express preferences among parties' candidates.

Electoral Reform committee  Was that a question to me?

Electoral Reform committee  I thought we were having a panel here.

Electoral Reform committee  Normally on a panel the presenters are allowed to come in, here and there—

Electoral Reform committee  —instead of this very rigid back and forth, as if we were in a court, as expert witnesses.

Electoral Reform committee  The question of whether your voice doesn't count or counts is broader than the translation of the results of the election into seats in the House of Commons. You also need to look at the whole question of governance. One of the advantages of a proportional or a mixed system, part

Electoral Reform committee  I don't really have much to add to what I wrote. I stand by my words. I haven't changed my mind since I wrote that article. We held a referendum on constitutional reform in 1992. It might be argued that this was much more ambitious than the reform of the electoral system. It is

Electoral Reform committee  It's an option you can look into.

Electoral Reform committee  Although the budget that has been allocated to this process wouldn't allow for it, I don't think—but budgets can be increased—the committee could develop agreements with relatively neutral outside organizations, such as research institutes. I'm not making a call for our own, but.