Article content continued

Reports from electoral reform town halls note that crowds are often in favour of a new electoral system. This is unsurprising because those who want change are organized and have an incentive to attend, while those who do not care about the issue are likely to remain unengaged. The results coming from the current processes are probably not representative samples of the population.

One well-documented problem is that town halls often fail to include the marginalized voices that are regularly mentioned in the government’s rhetoric. The failure to provide translation to Inuktitut during the minister’s visit to Nunavut was a well-noted failure in this regard, but overall, older, wealthier and more educated people are more likely to engage in policy debates. A recent Ipsos poll found that despite the flurry of meetings held over the summer, only 19 per cent of Canadians know that electoral reform consultations are taking place.

It’s also not clear that the conversations being had at these events are thoughtful or informed. Consider, for instance, a town hall meeting that took place in Toronto on Aug. 16. The meeting was hosted by six local MPs and was supposed to discuss “climate change, innovation, defence and veterans affairs” within the span of 90 minutes. Trying to cram that many topics into such a short period of time does not allow participants the time needed to go in-depth on any of the issues, or to foster critical dialogue.