Electoral Reform committee  Excuse me, but the government can still, whatever this committee recommends—

Electoral Reform committee  It's an informal discussion in Parliament, Mr. Chairman. They don't have to answer the question.

Electoral Reform committee  As I said, in these questions and in the whole discussion, it's not black and white. There are advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages for me in retaining first past the post at the local level, as long as it's profoundly affected by PR, is that Canadians would more r

Electoral Reform committee  As has already been said, I think it would add obviously to the legitimacy, but I don't think it's required. I think what is required is more than one party. I'd love to hear our Liberal colleagues comment on whether they agree that a measure brought in just by the governing Li

Electoral Reform committee  It does, but I have a preference, for simplicity's sake, for mixed member. You go in and you cast two votes. You cast a vote for your local member and you cast a vote for the party. As I was trying to say in my reply to Mr. Reid, most of these issues are not black and white. The

Electoral Reform committee  I've lost the question. I was listening to my learned friend with such attention that I have forgotten what the question was.

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, I think so, and I think the officials have indicated that if the report is in by the end of this calendar year, then there will be time to implement a new system. I respect their expertise, so I think the committee should be comfortable in making a recommendation as long as

Electoral Reform committee  Partly I attempted to address that in my earlier comments. I learned from my experience as an MP the importance of having a single member elected for a certain area. When we deal with what I would call a democratic issue, which leads inevitably to some form of PR, whereby every v

Electoral Reform committee  The point is that a major decision on the issue of gender equality—forget the precise details—was made without a referendum, as was bringing the vote for indigenous Canadians, as was bringing the vote for Japanese Canadians and other groups that had been discriminated against. We

Electoral Reform committee  Well, to use your own words, if it were a matter of “pushing through” an option, I would agree with you, but we've had earlier discussion, including that of our academic colleague from Toronto, who laid out certain conditions of legitimacy that did not entail a referendum and arg

Electoral Reform committee  He changed his mind, too, by the way.

Electoral Reform committee  Let me begin by agreeing with you implicitly on what you're asking about the importance of education. If I recall correctly, and I think I do, the outgoing head of the electoral commission had objected because the budget that allowed him to do more education of the public—I'm tur

Electoral Reform committee  Could I comment on this issue?

Electoral Reform committee  As you will recognize, this is quite a subjective answer on my part. It's a judgment call that's not based on any, as one would say, solid empirical evidence. That said, it's almost self-evident that part of the cynicism of youth, and not just youth, about the electoral system h

Electoral Reform committee  Oh, indeed.