Procedure and House Affairs committee  I should specify that the expectation is in the law. When you have an election, basically, there is a norm there. That's all.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure that this could be easily done. I guess I'm just reminding all of you that there is a law which says that elections are fixed date. Of course it's possible to have a snap election despite that law, but there is the expectation, I think, that usually there should be a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, it has not been done to my knowledge. When I read the proposals from Elections Canada, I was trying to find ways to make it as easy as possible. That is actually the objective: it has to be easy and quick for as many people as possible. You have to start thinking about all

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Honestly, I have just had these ideas for a few days when I found out I was going to appear before the committee. So I didn't have the opportunity to talk about it with other people.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That is already being done. If I understood the proposal correctly, the intent is to have even more flexibility. I assumed that this meant that election day could be different. So it would be easier to have it on a Wednesday in a centre or a residence, for example. We would have

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't have expertise in mail-in ballots, so I don't have any clear recommendations for Elections Canada about how exactly this should be done. Clearly, there would be a lot more, and they would have to take special care in making sure there was no fraud, for instance, and so on

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm really sorry. I don't have any clear solution for this. I'm really concerned about this as well, very much concerned. In fact, I'm involved in a study about social media misinformation about COVID. I think it's a huge challenge, but having thought this through, I don't know

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I mentioned that in preparing my presentation, I looked at the proposals made by Elections Canada, and I am just reacting to those suggestions. Understanding the possibility of being very flexible in how the voting would take place at these different places, my understanding is

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I mentioned that I applaud the proposal by Elections Canada to make it much easier to accommodate different days of voting points at different places. I was expressing my support for one of the proposals made by Elections Canada.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I thank the committee for inviting me to make a few comments on Elections Canada's recommendations in the event of an election during the pandemic. I have three very brief comments. The first one is that I do not think there should be an election this year.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Should I start from the beginning or not?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay. I thank the committee for inviting me to comment on what we should do if there is an election during the pandemic. I have three very brief comments. The first one is that I do not think there should be an election this year. We have fixed election dates. The next electi

Electoral Reform committee  It depends on what you're comparing it with. I think voters would be better off with preferential voting than the current system because it gives them the opportunity to articulate more than one preference. It would also mean that elected candidates had the support of the majorit

Electoral Reform committee  Well, why not amend the P.E.I. approach—five options, a plebiscite, preferential voting, and there was a decision at the end made by citizens in a referendum?

Electoral Reform committee  The website of P.E.I.'s chief electoral officer is a great example. It presents the five options, along with a brief, informative and concise description of each of the five proposals being considered. That would be a good starting point.