by Katherine V. R. Sullivan, Université de Montréal
There has been ongoing talk of a possible electoral system reform in Canada. But what are the various options and what would be their consequences for voters and parties? In order to offer insights on these questions, the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship and the Research Chair in Electoral Studies at the Université de Montréal will be hosting a public forum on electoral reform on October 20th.
This public forum will begin with a presentation by Professor André Blais on the following four voting systems:
First Past the Post (FPTP)
Alternative Vote (AV)
Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP)
Small District Open List Proportional Representation (SOP)
Four political scientists will then be allowed 12 minutes to argue in favour of each of them. This will be followed by an open debate about the pros and cons of these systems before audience members are invited to ask questions – using a mobile platform called Pigeonhole Live – and then vote for their two preferred options.
The forum will take place on October 20, 2016, from 19h30 to 21h30, at the McGill New Residence Hall (3625 Av du Parc, Montréal) and you can register here http://electrefo.eventbrite.com. The forum will be streamed live by CPAC (https://www.cpac.ca)
