Electoral Reform committee  When I cited those statistics, it was partly for the purpose of demonstrating that there's no exact result from any system. You can't say, this will lead to that, because we have this antiquated system—sorry, I shouldn't keep repeating that, as I'll believe it after awhile—or lon

Electoral Reform committee  I totally agree. The committee is trying to find out what Canadians think with town hall meetings. However, the members or organizations must still take the initiative to use these tools. I read them and I looked at all of that. It's quite well done, but people still have to take

Electoral Reform committee  Group representation? I didn't quite understand.

Electoral Reform committee  I think the answer to that question is maybe that it's not entirely about what Canadians think about that. I think Canadians do value having a contact with local representatives and so on. As someone who always tries to use realism—and I'm a former public servant, so I haven't al

Electoral Reform committee  My colleague makes an interesting suggestion, which is that whether or not one or more models is agreed to here, it is very important that the committee agree on principles. The principle that you have in front of you in your mandate are numbered from one to five, but there are

Electoral Reform committee  I'm going to give you a very simple one: restore the public education mandate of the Chief Electoral Officer. It was trimmed under the previous government, and his office is basically confined to supporting groups that promote learning about voting in schools. They are excluded n

Electoral Reform committee  Wasn't the Conservative leader also against it, and wouldn't that have been reported?

Electoral Reform committee  Actually, you still have tax credits and refunds after the election. It is not fair to say that the government funding was eliminated. Only part of it was.

Electoral Reform committee  It's okay. I'm saving it for my next time in front of the mike.

Electoral Reform committee  I think it's an exaggeration if you refer to the Harper period. One of Stephen Harper's great achievement, or I should say perhaps the most notable achievement, was to be able to govern in a minority as if he had a majority.

Electoral Reform committee  His isn't the only party that did that—

Electoral Reform committee  Jean Chrétien did that all the time, and with a majority—

Electoral Reform committee  Although the budget that has been allocated to this process wouldn't allow for it, I don't think—but budgets can be increased—the committee could develop agreements with relatively neutral outside organizations, such as research institutes. I'm not making a call for our own, but.

Electoral Reform committee  It's an option you can look into.

Electoral Reform committee  I don't really have much to add to what I wrote. I stand by my words. I haven't changed my mind since I wrote that article. We held a referendum on constitutional reform in 1992. It might be argued that this was much more ambitious than the reform of the electoral system. It is