Electoral Reform committee  Thank you very much. Good morning, distinguished Chair, Vice-Chairs, and members of the committee. I'd like to begin by saying a few words about the Institute on Governance and our work in advancing better governance in Canada and abroad. The IOG, as we call ourselves, is an i

Electoral Reform committee  Could I take another two or three minutes?

Electoral Reform committee  I can do that, by all means.

Electoral Reform committee  I was going to talk about it, but I'm not going to come to a conclusion. I'll only tell you that in the same poll I was talking about earlier, there was interest in exploring other options. When you see the results, you can have a look at what you think of their interest. It's a

Electoral Reform committee  You shouldn't do anything that delegitimizes your role as individual members of Parliament. You are a very legitimate tool for having these conversations with Canadians. In whatever you do, I would be careful, if some of the solutions that are being proposed actually add to fra

Electoral Reform committee  I'll share some with—

Electoral Reform committee  I don't get to rebut?

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you. Then I would say that the measure is not what the voting system is, it's what the effectiveness of the governance model is? The question is too narrowly asked when you're asking about this system or that system, because it's not a duelling battle about experts. If thi

Electoral Reform committee  I think there's hardly enough time here, but I could always provide you with an answer in writing for your deliberations.

Electoral Reform committee  I would come to the conclusion that there's enough pressure for some form of reform. It's your responsibility here to determine how much reform the system requires and how much it can tolerate over what period of time. I think that if I had to rest my case on any of those things

Electoral Reform committee  I think reasonable men and women can come to reasonable conclusions, so I think the first test of that will be how as a committee you work together and what you will present as a report—hopefully not a series of reports—to the rest of the Parliament of Canada, to the government,

Electoral Reform committee  If you come back early enough.

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you. I'll touch briefly on this, and you can see it in my written submission after this presentation. I would think that, yes, citizens make the greatest connection with what all of this means to them in terms of outcomes. What is our parliamentary form of democracy, base

Electoral Reform committee  I'm glad someone asked me about a referendum. The best way to ensure legitimacy is for you to home in on recommendations that will demonstrate how the narrow focus of your question improves the broader governance question. Put that to the Canadians you're consulting with and di

Electoral Reform committee  I think that your work is fundamentally important here. I think the greater amount of hard work in the public domain that will lead to discussions that may or may not result in unanimity will condition the discussion and the conditions that are made going forward. I think there's