Electoral Reform committee  When you're talking about STV, the most important reason that STV is used mainly in relatively small districts is not to have too long lists of candidates that may be confusing to the voter. Of course, for the voters it's still not terribly complicated, because as long as they fi

Electoral Reform committee  I think they may not know everything about all of the candidates, but they're likely to know the more prominent candidates. This is a theoretical problem. When you look at the practice, for instance in Ireland, it is not a problem that voters really have to struggle with.

Electoral Reform committee  There are not very many negative outcomes for democracies. There tend to be negative outcomes for the bigger parties because big parties are the beneficiaries of FPTP, as they get overrepresented. That of course was the reason that the big parties in New Zealand were opposed to a

Electoral Reform committee  The way you have expressed it is also the way I would answer it. I agree completely with you.

Electoral Reform committee  If I understand you correctly, you're still talking about a mixed-member proportional system also for the rural districts because the top-up would be done by the list vote.

Electoral Reform committee  It seems to me that could work quite well. Basically, then, you would choose an MMP system. I think it would be desirable for the whole country, basically, to have the same system, not to have MMP for parts and STV, for instance, for another part of the country. With MMP, of co

Electoral Reform committee  I don't see any difference between that and having a single class of MPs. It may, in fact, be an advantage to have one MP who represents the specific interests of the district and an MP who represents a wider interest. So basically I think that when people talk about this as a fa

Electoral Reform committee  What are the most detrimental aspects?

Electoral Reform committee  We obviously have very good figures on that. The degree to which countries are proportional, have a consensus democracy, correlates in significant ways with the number of women elected to Parliament, with the number of women in cabinet, and also with general measures that the Uni

Electoral Reform committee  I think Ireland is probably an example, where the number of representatives per district ranges between three and five, so that there are some districts that are in fact closer to being a one-member district. I don't have this at my fingertips and would have to look it up, but I

Electoral Reform committee  Obviously, I cannot make any specific prediction of what would happen to Canada if it were to move to proportional representation. But my conclusions are based on very clear facts that are indisputable. Nobody can be 100% confident, but I am quite confident that for Canada, it wo

Electoral Reform committee  In the case of New Zealand, the political elite tried to stop the change that I considered desirable. I'm hoping that in Canada the political elite are more broad-minded, will allow serious discussion, and will conclude that PR is the better option.

Electoral Reform committee  As I understand it, in the case of Canada, in the last election a change in the electoral system was part of the campaign. I think the party that favoured it won a majority. I think Mr. Trudeau, of course—

Electoral Reform committee  Oh, I cannot—

Electoral Reform committee  —it's too important, but thank you.