Electoral Reform committee  Very briefly, there are other means beyond just a referendum, but I believe that a referendum probably provides the most widespread ability for Canadians to participate in the process.

Electoral Reform committee  Having run elections for 32 years, I would concur with Mr. Mayrand's comments, which I did read with great interest when he appeared here before the committee. I believe he indicated that he would need approximately two full years to implement any significant change. Given the n

Electoral Reform committee  I think it's imperative that this committee consider all aspects of the reform in ensuring that not only the populace understands how the reforms are going to be implemented and operated, but as well the other political actors: the candidates, parties, third parties, etc. Politic

Electoral Reform committee  I would repeat my answer, though. I think it is paramount that there be widespread acceptance from all Canadians, whether we choose to change the voting system or whether we retain the current status quo, and that Canadians have confidence. In the many elections that I have trav

Electoral Reform committee  I believe the legitimacy of our democracy depends upon the understanding of all Canadians of how their elected representatives are elected and the process and means under which that happens. In Ontario, after every election we are mandated by law to do a large survey of Ontarian

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you for inviting me to appear today. I am pleased to provide whatever advice I can on the important questions before this committee, and I'd like to offer you my thoughts on four topics: one, citizen expectations; two, the governing principle; three, modernizing elections;

Electoral Reform committee  I will begin by answering that I do believe citizens expect some form of congruence. When electors go out the door to vote, they expect that if they turn left to go to their community centre to vote municipally, that they would turn left to go to the community centre to vote prov

Electoral Reform committee  As I indicated in my remarks, any change to our electoral system, I believe, is only going to be accepted by citizens when it is truly understood and accepted by all citizens. There are various means by which Parliament may wish to engage citizens. I am not advocating for one ove

Procedure and House Affairs committee  To be perfectly honest, on that particular question your interpretation is correct. I'm not in a position to actually go into it in depth and comment on whether that has been abided by.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The legislation does allow that I could, in fact, approve a different question based on the information that was provided from the local council or the local jurisdiction.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would suggest, given the experience in Ontario, that one of things that was very noticeable in some of the survey results was that the electorate was looking for the politicians. There's a great deal of trust in their politicians. They were looking for the opinions and viewpoin

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There's a great deal of trust in the politicians, on what their view on the proposition being put before them was. And the silence actually, we believe, based on the survey results, had somewhat of a detrimental effect to the populace really becoming engaged in the actual questio

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The challenge I see in the 2007 referendum in Ontario was the role Elections Ontario was charged with playing, which was to be the primary vehicle for public education of the electorate in the province on the referendum question. Balancing that with the neutrality role that my of

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Given our experience in Ontario, I would concur with my predecessor's view. One of the issues I know he was very troubled about was the fact that, as you alluded to, Elections Ontario was perceived to be biased because of the role they performed on the public education front. Th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In Ontario there are municipal referendums, but the question has to be approved by the Chief Electoral Officer. There have been some in our larger jurisdictions—the city of Toronto comes to mind. The question was whether they wanted to approve a casino within the boundaries of th