Conservatives Demand Citizen-Driven Electoral Reform

Ottawa – MP Scott Reid, the Conservative Party Critic for Democratic Reform, presented the Conservative Party Minority Report on Electoral Reform to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs today. The Report, crafted as a response to the Committee’s Report on Electoral Reform prescribing a politician-led process, laid out the preferred Conservative option for citizen-driven reform.

“The Committee has opted for a commission of parliamentarians and selected a process that will be hindered by the inevitable element of political partisanship,” Reid stated. “It is for this reason that the Conservative Party favours a ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ model as the most objective and inclusive means of reforming our electoral system.”

The Citizens’ Assembly model was used to pioneer a referendum on electoral reform in the British Columbia provincial election last month. The Assembly, comprised of randomly-selected citizens representing an equal delegation from each of the province’s 79 ridings, was a landmark populist initiative that produced equally historic results. In a referendum last month, 57% of BC voters supported the Assembly’s proposal for the Single Transferable Vote.

“The overwhelming level of popular support that BC voters gave to the proposal surpasses that of any previous electoral reform initiative at the federal or provincial level. This is a direct result of the fact that it was constructed by a body of citizens free of partisan motivations or special-interest links,” Reid added.

“There is a strong possibility that, by the time the Committee reports, a Conservative Government will be in office,” Reid said. “A Conservative Government would ensure that any such reforms to our system would be focused on strengthening the link between average citizens and their elected representatives, and therefore would first be ratified by a public referendum.”

To read the Conservative Party’s Minority Report on Electoral Reform, see the Committee’s Report online:

In PDF format:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/infocomdoc/38/1/parlbus/commbus/house/PROC/report/RP1936659//PROC_Rpt43/PROC_Rpt43-e.pdf

In HTML format:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteePublication.aspx?SourceId=121828

For more information or to speak with Mr. Reid
Please call (613) 257-8130 or (613) 947-2277.

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