Electoral Reform committee  I don't have the answer to your question. It all depends on how big the electoral district is. What I may say, though, about the town halls that we talked about earlier is that it's very important to have people debating the issue and participating in it. The voice of a governme

Electoral Reform committee  To be frank, this is not something I would insist on, because the reform we're talking about would be at the federal level. In my view, there is no necessity to have the provinces on board, since it's at the federal level. I usually insist very much on federal and provincial co-

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you. What was not acceptable to some people was the idea that someone would be a candidate in the riding and at the same time would be at the top of a list. When that person was defeated in the riding, it was the result of a democratic expression of the population that “We

Electoral Reform committee  Yes. Ultimately, the mixed-member proportional representation makes it possible to achieve two great objectives. The first is to reduce the discrepancy between the votes cast for, and the number of seats obtained by, a political party. The second is, if you will, to encourage sm

Electoral Reform committee  I think the experience of countries that adopted the mixed-member proportional method of voting is telling. The two classes of members have learned to live in harmony. They have found a way to work together. I suspect that the same thing would happen in Canada. Furthermore, the

Electoral Reform committee  Legally speaking, the government could proceed through Parliament.

Electoral Reform committee  There might be a qualified vote in Parliament with two thirds of MPs, for example, instead of a referendum. Let me tell you this, if the reform is “substantial”—and I used that word earlier—then there is a question of legitimacy related to the fact the population expresses its op

Electoral Reform committee  We referred to that mandatory voting or “compulsory voting”, as we called it a few minutes ago.

Electoral Reform committee  I don't think it would go against the charter because what the charter does recognize is the right to vote, and as long as the right to vote is respected, I think the charter is respected. Then it becomes more a question of what kinds of values do we as Canadians want to cherish

Electoral Reform committee  First, I was telling you that studies we had access to in government indicated that there would be no real change in participation in elections. However, we all heard from Professor Lijphart that, in his opinion, it would influence the vote. Basically, two different opinions have

Electoral Reform committee  A government that truly wants to encourage the public to start off a new debate and to participate in it has all the public space it needs to do so right now.

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, indeed, openness is the major challenge. At the same time, outlooks change a lot. A little earlier, I was asked if Quebeckers would react in the same way today to the proposal for mixed-member proportional voting that the Government of Quebec made in 2006. Today, ten years

Electoral Reform committee  Yes. In Quebec, we had a plan to reform the method of voting and we also wanted to change the elections act. I have always believed that substantial state funding was something to be valued in a society. However, it must perhaps not be full state funding because the people’s par

Electoral Reform committee  No.

Electoral Reform committee  The Government of Quebec wanted to reconcile various factors. One of them was regional representation. That led the government to choose regional compensation over provincial compensation. The second factor that the government considered is that it wanted a relatively simple sys