Electoral Reform committee  Thank you very much, and welcome to Charlottetown. We arranged the nice weather just for you, and this room perhaps as well. Our clerk provided materials which I understand you have, or will have, on your iPads. I have a print copy here. They include the Carruthers report, which

Electoral Reform committee  There are no parameters. Anybody can join in. I understand you're hearing from the head of the PR action team later today. I'm not sure that's part of what she's presenting. Perhaps she could give you some more insight from that side of things. Mr. Russell presented to us and ta

Electoral Reform committee  If I could just tell you quickly, too, we did address that in our second report. If you want to look for it, it's in there.

Electoral Reform committee  We looked at this in a fairly in-depth way when we started out, and we actually had Mr. Russell in to talk to us at that point in time. It is a very valid.... It's something we spent a lot of our time trying to figure out. I think, to his point, that we at least tried to give the

Electoral Reform committee  Obviously, it's tough for me to give advice in your context, but I can tell you what we did. The big thing that I think we did was—and I think we did it well, and I'm not saying that we were perfect by any means—early on we turned our minds to the process and to what would likely

Electoral Reform committee  It's really a simple rationale. It's all about engagement. I could say that and leave it, but I'll add a little context. The e-voting piece is really in response to, as Mr. Russell indicated, the issues that we had in 2005. It's a far cheaper way to conduct a plebiscite. It's a

Electoral Reform committee  I guess I would flip it on its head and ask whether you can really ensure that in any way, no matter what system you're utilizing. Elections P.E.I. did the research into this and came and made their formal presentations regarding how it can be carried out. My understanding is tha

Electoral Reform committee  I think I already answered that, but I'll say it again. I think it's all about confidence in your democratic system. I will say that there were certainly enough questions about our system that it warranted having the conversation. In any democracy, we can assume that we know the

Electoral Reform committee  There are a number of different ways in which I can answer that question, but I'll say this. We all know that the Prime Minister has been on record as saying that's the last time we'll vote under that existing system. If you truly want change, I will tell you that it would be muc

Electoral Reform committee  I might first be very careful to say that it wasn't our recommendation or decision to proceed in that way or that direction. It was two things. It was a motion of the legislature, but ultimately it was basically something that stemmed from the white paper and the discussion that

Electoral Reform committee  I'll start by saying that I'd need a lot more than five minutes to explain the rationale behind that. It took us three or four meetings, times about three hours each, to get to that conclusion. However, the rationale behind the structure that we ended up with was that we though

Electoral Reform committee  That's basically correct, yes. The other thing that is coming out of the 2005 plebiscite, is there's basically an information vacuum resulting from that. We knew that people didn't want that kind of change, but we didn't know whether they didn't want any change or what the real r

Electoral Reform committee  The reality is that—in my understanding, anyway; I don't presume to know too much—at the end of the day, people have entrusted you to come back to them with their presentations consolidated into something concrete that they can make a decision on. We heard this in presentations t

Electoral Reform committee  I'll answer in English, if that's all right.

Electoral Reform committee  The process that came together in the end was ultimately a process that we put together as a committee. In other words, it was the part that we had something to do with, the consultation part. I think the process overall leading into that, which was envisioned, I guess, by execut