Electoral Reform committee  Since I only have five minutes, I will go quickly. Thanks for coming. It's nice to be here.

Electoral Reform committee  What I meant was I'll dispense with the long thank you and welcomes.

Electoral Reform committee  The translators have a copy of my notes, so I'll mostly stick to those. First I will acknowledge that we're on the traditional territory of the Dene people, Chief Drygeese territory. I'll tell you a little bit about Alternatives North. It's a small non-profit. We're a social j

Electoral Reform committee  I'm here to speak on behalf of Alternatives North, and we haven't discussed that, so I won't give an answer on their behalf, but, myself, I would look at two things. One is this issue of how to run a proportional system in parts of Canada where there's a low population. It's not

Electoral Reform committee  At Alternatives North, we didn't take a position on open lists or closed lists. I'll point out that a dual member proportional system, with two members in each riding, gets rid of the problem of the lists because it uses the other candidates who are running. They are selected as

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, that is correct.

Electoral Reform committee  If I understood correctly, you're asking if we would have three directly elected members, one for each territory, plus just one more for proportionality.

Electoral Reform committee  I think it's obvious that the fourth one would jump around, depending on very small changes in the vote, because you'd get three in, and then which party gets the fourth is not very easy, to be sure. It's better than nothing, but the proportionality is not very good.

Electoral Reform committee  That's a difficult decision.

Electoral Reform committee  I would prefer to share three and go with more proportionality, but it would be very passionately opposed by a lot of other northerners who feel they require their own MP.

Electoral Reform committee  I wish there were a way that we could vote and have our vote counted towards proportionality on a national scale. We don't need another MP in spite of colleagues' passionate arguments. We have one and that's enough, in my opinion. But if there's going to be a proportional system,

Electoral Reform committee  If that were possible without changing the Constitution, then yes.

Electoral Reform committee  Technically, in the City of Yellowknife system, it's the first eight past the post, plus a separate election for mayor.

Electoral Reform committee  At the territorial level, there are no parties, so you don't have the confusion in voting of whether you are voting for the candidate or for the party, so that's the difference. There is no party name on the ballot at the territorial level. At the federal level, you are voting fo

Electoral Reform committee  I think that, at the territorial level, the political culture determines the voting system, but the parties are forbidden by the way it's been set up in the legislature.