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A few weeks back, I took the rare – and, in the Canadian political journalizing racket, generally ill-advised – step of expressing tentative but emphatic optimism over what appeared to be a shocking lack of cross-party bickering amongst the 12 MPs tasked to serve out their summers on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform.

It was early days yet, I stressed, but it was already clear that ensuring that no one party, including the governing Liberals, could count on controlling a majority of votes actually seemed to be working, at least as far as relaxing the strict party lines that too often dictate the outcome of discussions under the standard format.

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Since then, the committee has held two rounds of hearings, an opening session with Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef, then follow-up with testimony from both the current and former chief electoral officers in early July.

After those meeting wrapped up, they took a (well-deserved) break, returning to Ottawa this week for four days of panel discussions with various and sundry experts around the world.