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If the committee wants to broaden the discussion on electoral reform, it’s going to have to blast through the lines of battle long ago established by diehard warriors on all sides of the debate.

One way to do that would be to stop implying that Canadians simply aren’t smart enough to either take part in an informed conversation on various voting methods – or, alternately, aren’t smart enough to competently fill out any ballot that goes beyond the basic X-marks-the-spot.

When you get down to it, it’s not nearly as ineffable as both proponents and opponents of electoral reform have a tendency to suggest

Yes, it’s a complex issue – and no, there is no perfect system, and of course different options mean that trade-offs have to be made – but when you get down to it, it’s not nearly as ineffable as both proponents and opponents of electoral reform have a tendency to suggest, whether as a reason to avoid a national referendum on the question or as a defence of the winner-take-all single-member plurality status quo.

It’s also not a particularly effective way of getting people to tune in to the discussion – or, indeed, show up with questions and comments for an open mic meeting at the local community centre, which is precisely what the committee will be endeavouring to do when it hits the road later this month.

Committee members should also do their best to keep the advocates – from every side – from stacking the audience or the queue for that microphone, lest they find themselves listening to the same bumper-sticker slogans that started to seep into witness testimony during the first phase of hearings.

In any case, as committee members should make a collective vow not to let Bricker’s numbers cast a pall over their journey.

There’s no reason to think that they can’t get Canadians thinking and talking about electoral reform, either in a packed town hall or over the dinner table – unless, that is, the general attitude amongst the very people trying to kickstart that conversation seems to be shocked by the possibility that anyone out there would want to join in.