Electoral Reform committee  Thanks for the opportunity. I'll take it to respond to Mr. Kelly a little bit. This committee's job is to talk about better ways of governing and making decisions. We're talking about majoritarian decision-making versus other possibilities, and that proportional representation i

Electoral Reform committee  Very briefly, we're talking about languages. We're talking about voices, and if the system hears people's voices, then it's working. If we can come up with a system that hears more voices of all Canadians, then we're also going to hear more indigenous voices, and that will be an

Electoral Reform committee  Sure. At the municipal level, in the City of Yellowknife, councillors all represent the city, so all the people who run for council are on the ballot and you choose up to eight. Strategically what you end up doing is voting only for the ones you're absolutely sure about, because

Electoral Reform committee  Yes.

Electoral Reform committee  Yes.

Electoral Reform committee  That's an intriguing idea. Again, the Constitution has a lot to say about that, but I don't know exactly what it has to say. I grew up in Labrador. I've lived many years here in the Northwest Territories, but I also lived in Labrador, and I can tell you that it is very similar.

Electoral Reform committee  Technically, in the City of Yellowknife system, it's the first eight past the post, plus a separate election for mayor.

Electoral Reform committee  At the territorial level, there are no parties, so you don't have the confusion in voting of whether you are voting for the candidate or for the party, so that's the difference. There is no party name on the ballot at the territorial level. At the federal level, you are voting fo

Electoral Reform committee  I think that, at the territorial level, the political culture determines the voting system, but the parties are forbidden by the way it's been set up in the legislature.

Electoral Reform committee  Fair enough, but the two are linked.

Electoral Reform committee  I wish there were a way that we could vote and have our vote counted towards proportionality on a national scale. We don't need another MP in spite of colleagues' passionate arguments. We have one and that's enough, in my opinion. But if there's going to be a proportional system,

Electoral Reform committee  If that were possible without changing the Constitution, then yes.

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, that is correct.

Electoral Reform committee  If I understood correctly, you're asking if we would have three directly elected members, one for each territory, plus just one more for proportionality.

Electoral Reform committee  I think it's obvious that the fourth one would jump around, depending on very small changes in the vote, because you'd get three in, and then which party gets the fourth is not very easy, to be sure. It's better than nothing, but the proportionality is not very good.