Friday, December 9, 2017: Public Issues Forum
How Should We Vote? Electoral Reform in Canada
On December 1, the 12-member parliamentary committee on electoral reform released its final report. Join a distinguished and diverse panel of policymakers, community representatives, and academics, including a member of the committee, as they discuss the implications of electoral reform for Canadian democracy in action at a U of T Centre for Ethics Public Issues Forum on Friday, Dec. 9, at 3:15 pm, at Vivian & David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place.
The Special Committee on Electoral Reform was charged with exploring alternatives to Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system, and to examine mandatory voting and online voting. How do the specific issues explored by the committee connect to more basic concerns about fairness, legitimacy, representativeness, constitutionalism, and ethics at all levels of Canadian politics? What ails Canadian democracy? Is electoral reform necessary, or sufficient, to address these concerns? What lessons, if any, does the recent U.S. election hold for Canadian electoral reform?
Participants
- Ms. Ruby Sahota, MP (L) Brampton-North (Member, Special Committee on Electoral Reform);
- Ms. Avvy Go, OOnt (Clinic Director, Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic; Member, Community Council, Ontario Law Commission);
- Professor Craig Scott (Osgoode Hall Law School & former MP (NDP) Toronto-Danforth); and
- Professor Yasmin Dawood (University of Toronto, Canada Research Chair in Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Electoral Law).
Moderator
- Royson James (Toronto Star)
Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, 3:15 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
(Reception to Follow)
Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place
Free and Open to the Public