Question Period Exchange Between Maryam Monsef and Rona Ambrose

Hon. Rona Ambrose (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): 

Mr. Speaker, the report of the multi-party committee on democratic reform is in, and the recommendation is clear: If the Prime Minister wants to change the rules of democracy, then Canadians get to have a say in a referendum. This is a huge victory for democracy and a huge victory for Canadians. Will the Prime Minister actually respect the recommendations in this report, and commit to holding a referendum if he wants to change the way we vote?

Hon. Maryam Monsef (Minister of Democratic Institutions, Lib.): 

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the members of the special committee for their time and effort in studying this. We have received the report. I am going to review it carefully and I urge every member of the House to do the same. I know this was a challenging process, and the report shows just how challenging electoral reform can be, because the only consensus that the committee found was that there is no consensus on electoral reform. In the coming days, we will be taking specific actions to continue this conversation with Canadians. 

Hon. Rona Ambrose (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): 

Mr. Speaker, the multi-party committee on electoral reform presented its report, and its recommendation is clear: if the Prime Minister wants to change the rules of democracy, Canadians must have their say in a referendum. This is a major victory for democracy. Will the Prime Minister heed the committee’s recommendation and commit to holding a referendum if he plans to change the voting system?

Hon. Maryam Monsef (Minister of Democratic Institutions, Lib.): 

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we have received the report, and we encourage all members of the House to do the same. My first impressions are that there are some good ideas in there. For example, the only way that we can engage Canadians on their preference for an alternative to first past the post is through a values-based conversation. But on the main question and the hard choices that we asked the committee to make, the members of the committee took a pass. The NDP critic said, choose your own adventure. I thank the committee members for their time, and we will continue this conversation— 

The Speaker: 

The Leader of the Opposition.

Hon. Rona Ambrose (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): 

Mr. Speaker, this is unbelievable. The multi-party committee spoke and it was clear, and Canadians have also spoken, that a referendum needs to be held. The only thing that we are hearing from the other side is that the Prime Minister thinks he is smarter than Canadians and that only he can decide how we vote and what our vote means. That is an insult to every Canadian in this country. If he wants to change the way we vote, he has to have a referendum.

Hon. Maryam Monsef (Minister of Democratic Institutions, Lib.): 

To the contrary, Mr. Speaker, our Prime Minister asked that we bring together a special committee to study the options available to us and to recommend a specific system as an alternative to first past the post. We asked the committee to help answer very difficult questions for us. It did not do that. We now have to make those hard changes, and I am looking forward to continuing this conversation with Canadians. 

Hon. Rona Ambrose (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): 

Mr. Speaker, the insults just keep coming from the other side of the House. Every opposition party worked together, worked hard, and came to a consensus. The problem here is that the Prime Minister does not want to listen to Canadians and he does not want to listen to the other parties, just like he will not have a referendum because he thinks that Canadians are not smart enough, that they are not as smart as he is to pick the kind of system that we are to rely on. The Prime Minister is wrong. Canadians are smart enough to cast a vote.

Hon. Maryam Monsef (Minister of Democratic Institutions, Lib.): 

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are smart, reasonable people and we are doing this for them.

The committee did not offer a specific alternative to first past the post. Instead, it offered us the Gallagher index. So the hon. member wants us to have a referendum on the following: Would Canadians like to take the square root of the sum of the squares of the difference between the percentage of the seats for each party and the percentage of the votes passed?

Thank you,