Since this paper last wrote an article on electoral reform there have been several developments on the issue.Firstly, Justin Trudeau apologized to the House of Commons for comments he made during Question Period alleging that the opposition was not cooperating on electoral reform. When questioned about the lack of progress, Trudeau said that his government has put forward several ways to address the issue, including a parliamentary committee, direct engagement by the Minister of Democratic Institutions, and a public consultation. Trudeau implied that the delays arose because the opposition Conservatives and NDP were imposing unreasonable conditions in exchange for taking part. Conservative MP Scott Reid challenged this statement, calling it “invented and patently false”, forcing the Prime Minister to issue a formal apology through the Speaker.In addition, the Prime Minister altered the structure of the parliamentary committee looking at electoral reform. Initially, the committee had a government majority but after the NDP put forward a motion for a a committee that gave a majority to the opposition parties the Liberals abandoned their plans and supported this motion. Prime Minister Trudeau said that he feared they were acting too much like the Conservatives under Stephen Harper and that his government is trying to work better with the opposition. The initial proposal would also have denied a vote to the Bloc and the Green Party but the NDP committee contains five Liberals, three Conservatives, two NDP, and one Bloc and one Green Party. The motion also called for all MPs to conduct town hall consultations with constituents and to file results by October 14th. There have not yet been many scheduled town hall meetings, in fact, only a handful have taken place so far. Local MP Judy Sgro has yet to set a date for consultations in her riding but this information will be added to the Downsview Advocate’s website event listing when it becomes available.The consultations will discuss what form electoral reform will take. There are two major proposals: Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) and Single Transferable Vote (STV). MMP involves making two votes: one for a local MP and one for a regional representative. The regional MP would be used to “top up” the votes to ensure that the number of MPs that the party receives is proportional to the number of votes it receives. The Law Commission of Canada recommended this system in 2004. STV involves larger ridings that would receive a number of MPs based on its population. Voters rank candidates on their order of preference. The number of votes needed to elect an MP would be calculated by dividing the number of voters by the number of seats. Candidates who receive more than this will have their surplus votes transferred to voters’ second choice. The BC Citizens Assembly recommended this system in 2004.Leadnow is an organization concerned with this issue and will be conducting a detailed presentation on proportional representation in the coming months. The time and location will also be posted on the Advocate’s website.Stay tuned for more information!