His verdict? It’s “okay” he says – definitely not perfect, and he has a few very specific quibbles with both the agree-disagree statements – “people are more likely to say agree,” he notes – as well as the either/or scenarios, some of which he believes may be too long.

But he approves of the preference questions – these are, he points out, “tough choices,” so he likes that a lot.

“I have my reservations, but overall, it’s fine, I think,” he says.

He’s also not convinced that the absence of any questions on specific systems – or, indeed, even the concept of proportionality – is a problem.

“Many people don’t have a clue what PR is,” he notes, but they do have a very good idea of their own values, which is why he sees that complaint as “completely invalid.”

As for the suggestion that the whole survey is primed to produce an endorsement of ranked ballots: “Absolutely not.”

He notes that you can have ranked ballots with PR, something he also pointed out in an essay published in Policy Options, in which he lays out what he sees as the best – and possibly only – way out of what he sees as a “mess.”

His proposal: A referendum, which would be held in conjunction with the next scheduled general election in 2019, and would include the option of sticking with first-past-the-post, shifting to a specific model of proportional representation and, possibly, a third alternative to be put forward directly by the government, which he believes would be a “perfectly legitimate” move by a governing party if it can’t reach a compromise with the opposition.

He says he’s hopeful that his proposal might be acceptable to all sides of the debate, although he hasn’t yet heard from the New Democrats or the Green Party, who he believes have to make the first move towards compromise.

“They have to realize that it’s the only way possible now.”

UPDATE: Full text of the joint statement from the advisory panel members:

We all participated as members of an academic advisory board in designing the mydemocracy.ca survey. In our role, we engaged in a discussion with Vox Pop Labs about the general goals of the website and survey. We proposed survey questions and commented on questions written by Vox Pop Labs.

While we were not responsible for the design of the final instrument or the selection of the final survey items, we do feel that the choice of items is defensible and consistent with best practices in survey design. Tradeoffs are unavoidable when choosing an electoral system , and the survey aims to reflect this . Our hope is that the data from this project will be made widely available in the research community. We have all been engaged in debates over electoral reform, in some cases for many years. While we hold differing views on the best electoral system and the process for reforming our current system, we are all committed to an open and informed debate.

The Gargoyle is the Ottawa Citizen’s federal politics blog.