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With the coming to power of the NDP, however, the issue is back on the table: both the NDP and the Green Party, on whose support it depends, had made proportional representation part of their election platforms. Refreshingly, the government may even keep its promise — I take nothing for granted — with a referendum now scheduled for November of next year. Unlike the two previous referendums, a majority of 50 per cent plus one will be sufficient. Another key difference: this time the government will be campaigning in favour of reform.

That still leaves much to be decided: how many questions to ask and what kind; what sort of reform proposals to put on the ballot, and how many; and so forth.

Should they follow the model of New Zealand in 1992, for example, and ask voters two questions: do you want to replace first past the post, and if so, with what? I do not see how this is helpful. It’s more or less the Trudeau approach, albeit without the interposition of an election between the two. But it’s still odd to ask people whether they would like to change systems in the abstract, without knowing what they were changing to: some systems might be preferred to the status quo, some might not.

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At the same time, it is not obvious why first past the post should be given, in effect, a bye into the finals, the default option in the event a proposed reform fails, as in past referendums. Maybe that particular proposal did not obtain the required level of support, but another might have; it seems odd, again, to simply assume that first past the post would be in people’s top two.