Electoral Reform committee  Can I just say that if anyone has any questions that I wasn't able to answer I'm happy to have that conversation afterwards or via email or other forms of communication. Thank you for your attention.

Electoral Reform committee  I would point you to some work that is currently being done by a colleague of mine, Angela Wagner. She is a post-doctoral student at McGill University and she may have been in touch with some, but maybe not, because I think she is actually not looking at the people who have been

Electoral Reform committee  Not everyone, but it's more the norm.

Electoral Reform committee  I think the real challenge is that the younger generation is not as actively engaged in party politics as previous generations. Many point to the fact that they're involved in other types of activities, other types of groups and organizations, but that doesn't necessarily mean th

Electoral Reform committee  The key thing with referendums is that they do provide very important opportunities for voters to learn, to educate, to find more information about things, and to participate in a system in terms of the choices that are made. I am torn about whether we should be using them or n

Electoral Reform committee  Okay.

Electoral Reform committee  The one thing that comes from a proportional representation system is that you're less likely to have majority governments, and that's its major criticism. Single-member plurality systems create majority governments, and most people will say, “Oh, majority governments are good g

Electoral Reform committee  Do you mean because they got fewer votes than the Conservatives? I think there is really something to be said for the fact that parties have a vested interest. We do see the most frequent calls for electoral reform coming from those parties that have been, somehow or other, hurt

Electoral Reform committee  I have for 19 years.

Electoral Reform committee  I wasn't here at that point in time but—

Electoral Reform committee  I think it would have been a very interesting situation. It's hard to have voices when you don't have seats in the legislative assemblies. I think one of the real challenges that we face, and it was mentioned, is the fact that Atlantic Canada supported all Liberals—they sent all

Electoral Reform committee  Sure. I think it was Mr. Cullen who was talking about some of the other countries that are ahead of us in representation. They are there because of quotas, so quotas work. I'm not saying quotas don't work, and I'm not saying that paying attention to proportions is not important t

Electoral Reform committee  You're dealing with an institution. The electoral system is a political institution, and political institutions are notoriously hard to change. Take a look at our Constitution, our structure of Parliament, our Senate, and all kinds of things that are very hard to change. If you

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, I think it is. One of the things I've always looked at is the degree to which politics is a very masculine activity. It's frequently framed in competitive sporting-type analogies. Even in the structure of the House of Commons itself, as we always say in our introductory poli

Electoral Reform committee  No, I don't think it was. There are so many factors that go into voter choices. One of the things I do, beyond studying gender, is study voting in elections and voting behaviour. I was on election study teams surveying voters after the 2004 and 2006 elections, and after the 2014