Electoral Reform committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, you have seen me on television but now you are seeing me in person. I hope that you are not too disappointed.

Electoral Reform committee  Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the commission, good afternoon. You will have to excuse my language, but I spent 25 years in the National Assembly where we call a committee a commission parlementaire. I am happy to be here with Mr. Broadbent today. I do not know if he remembe

Electoral Reform committee  Let’s hear the voice of experience first.

Electoral Reform committee  I was a member of the National Assembly for 25 years, in the same system as the current one. I was a parliamentarian and a representative of the people at the same time. If I had been in a situation of pure proportionality, for example, I would have been a member representing his

Electoral Reform committee  First, you have to establish a compensatory method based on regions.

Electoral Reform committee  It would mean the major federated jurisdictions and perhaps a group of federated jurisdictions in some cases. Quebec would be a region, for example. Within Quebec, there would also be sub-regions. There would not be just one regional constituency in Quebec. As proposed for the Na

Electoral Reform committee  A few years ago, when we had the parliamentary commission on the draft bill in Quebec, it would have been good if the minister appointed to hold the fort actually had held it. In other words, if someone does not stand up for the change they themselves are proposing, there is goin

Electoral Reform committee  I see no Canadian list, clearly. Otherwise, we would not be talking about regional compensation but national compensation. You cannot really think in terms of a national list for an area as huge as Canada. That could not be sustainable for long, in my opinion.

Electoral Reform committee  Let’s not confuse issues. I believe that the funding of political parties is one matter and reforming the method of voting is another. However, that gives me the opportunity to come back to—

Electoral Reform committee  I would like to have talked about the referendum in the 10 minutes I was given, but I did not have the time to do so. What would be most helpful is for the committee here to do its work and, after lengthy study of the matter, to propose a solution to the people. After two general

Electoral Reform committee  Madam, I do not feel that the Constitution concerns itself with the method of voting. The important thing is to preserve democracy. Democracy is a parliamentary majority, but, in this case, given that this debate is about the method of representation, it is also a popular majorit

Electoral Reform committee  The committee's mandate already states a number of principles and values. You have to think about it and assess the various options. It really is a fundamental guide. For example, must we attribute importance to fair representation of the major political currents in our society?

Electoral Reform committee  But if you do not have the principles at the outset, I believe that you are off to a really bad start in making those political choices.

Electoral Reform committee  Okay. The experiment was conducted in New Zealand. The advantage is that people can try out a political mechanism that can be quite complex, depending on the choice made. When people try a system out, they make it their own and most of them, with the exception of new voters who

Electoral Reform committee  Then it is easier for people to make an informed judgment as a result.