It’s been just over a year since Justin Trudeau’s government announced it would not be pursuing its platform commitment to make the 2015 federal election the last Canadian election held using first-past-the-post. This week on the Off Script podcast we compare what Justin Trudeau and others have been saying about proportional representation with what the research says about countries that use proportional systems.

Matt Risser (@mattrisser) joins us to unpack how systems of proportional representation work in other countries, and how they might work in Canada. Matt was recently elected as a councillor-at-large for the town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and works as a governance consultant and political commentator.

Prior to getting elected as a town councillor, Matt co-authored the “Better Choices” series of discussion papers published by Springtide. Both papers model voting system alternatives for Nova Scotia and Canada.

Resources Referenced:

Better Choices: Voting System Alternatives for Canada (Paper)

Better Choices: Voting System Alternatives for Nova Scotia (Paper)

Audio Sources:

Justin Trudeau in Yellowknife 2017 (CBC) – Justin Trudeau Explains Electoral Reform U-Turn

Justin Trudeau in Yellowknife 2017 (CBC) – Should Kellie Leitch Have Her Own Party?

Justin Trudeau on CBC’s ‘The House’