Procedure and House Affairs committee  Obviously, every province should have the number of seats that is proportional to its proportion of the population. That is the ideal. Is there a way of improving this bill? In order to do it and have a formula to do this, mathematically speaking, you have to work with the quotient.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm sure Mr. Mayrand is as capable of heroic efforts as I, and Elections Canada is as well equipped as when I was there. I answered somewhat jokingly, but basically, it won't cause any problems. The mould has been broken. It could even take a little less time. We made heroic efforts, not superhuman efforts.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In order for there to be flexibility, it would have to be in the act. Personally, I don't see the need for that. I don't think the changes to the time limits are a big deal.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I felt that way, I would say so. That's not my job anymore, but I have a clear recollection of how I ran the shop. There is no reason to worry about any problems here.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They were based on our experience. So I was comfortable saying so. It takes seven months, because I've done it in seven months. No one committed suicide at the end of the exercise.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In the report produced in 2005, when I was chief electoral officer, a whole range of proposals to improve the process were made. Here the focus is on a bill that would basically redistribute seats and speed up the process. Other recommendations were made that, to my mind, should be dealt with by the commissions themselves.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't think that is necessary at this point. I recommend that immediately after the exercise, this committee should see how it worked.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am leaving for two weeks on a business trip. I will be bringing the bill and all that with me. I will have a chance to look at it, and if other ideas come to mind, I will get back to the committee through the chair.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe it was in the 1990s and it was a request from—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe it was later. A fair number of Reform Party members had been elected. I don't remember the specific date. I made some phone calls this morning, but nobody remembers. A lot of documentation was created in connection with that committee. We studied the question and determined how it could be done.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There were 301.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, recommendations on how to go about it. But they were considered far too difficult to execute. So much so that the committee abandoned the idea.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In my opinion, no. I'm not going to get into the issue of proportional representation. Anyway, it's impossible to answer that question without taking into account the circumstances in which this country was formed, the historical context. I know that this point was raised the other day.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  All I can say is that you asked for my opinion and I gave it to you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I did not notice that in the formula. I will look into that. Each territory has a population of about 35,000 or 40,000, and it is a bit lower in Nunavut.