Electoral Reform committee  Thank you very much for being here. I'd like to first acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Dene people. Mahsi cho. First, to the committee, welcome to Yellowknife. I hope you have been able to experience first-hand what makes each territory unique: the pe

Electoral Reform committee  I wouldn't necessarily say that the vote of anybody who didn't vote would be wasted, because we don't know why they didn't vote. Were there barriers? Were there challenges that prevented them from getting out to the poll? Did they exercise, maybe, a silent protest by not voting,

Electoral Reform committee  I like it. That's fine. I'm a direct person as well and I play devil's advocate, to my own demise sometimes. I would say that if we had every single riding, every jurisdiction where the MP that won, won by such a close margin, then we wouldn't have an issue. But we're not talkin

Electoral Reform committee  If we did, then we wouldn't be here.

Electoral Reform committee  From what we've seen, the people who get elected, when I talk to various people in the community about different reasons why they don't run in elections, well, people—

Electoral Reform committee  Basically the entire process would have to be based on the foundation of what proportional representation is. Therefore, I'm not a fan of STV personally. I'm not going to take a specific position on either one, but the entire process that is electing our leaders must be open. The

Electoral Reform committee  I would have to agree with David that previous MPs have done the best they possibly can to represent the interests of the Northwest Territories, but I think often the party line drowns out their voice. When you work in politics, you have to make friends, and you don't make friend

Electoral Reform committee  No, it is not because Yukon has its own Federation of Labour. The reason the NTFL covers both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is that it has existed since 1980, 19 years prior to the beginning of Nunavut's existence in 1999.

Electoral Reform committee  Our membership is diverse. I don't have exact numbers for the demographics that make up our membership, but when you walk around any of the communities, you realize how diverse the communities are. In Yellowknife alone, I swear there is somebody from every single country in the w

Electoral Reform committee  I'm not aware of any widespread issues. I am aware that there have been issues with things like residency times, registration, and getting documentation, especially for people who have immigrated to Canada. Obviously, there are challenges. We need to find mechanisms that enable p

Electoral Reform committee  You know what? As somebody who is young—and I probably look much younger than I am; for the record, I'm 31, but everyone thinks I'm in my young twenties—I personally am disgusted with politics, the environment, what it's about. It's more adversarial. It's about fighting each othe

Electoral Reform committee  Are you asking whether or not we should have a referendum?

Electoral Reform committee  Nothing is perfect in this world. It's a matter of how you look at everything. When we look at the results of first past the post, we understand what it means and we understand to a fault how you can exploit that system in your own interest. With a system like proportional repres

Electoral Reform committee  I'd have to agree. I can't speak for everybody who lives in the north. I can speak for myself and for the people that I know where they stand on the issue. In life there's the old saying that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But when there's conflict, conflict evokes change, and

Electoral Reform committee  I wouldn't say I had assumptions about politics being about anger and attack. I think that before an election and after an election are two completely different periods, and when somebody is trying to get elected, the atmosphere and the environment is different from after they've