Public Policy at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy | University of Toronto

Few things are more central to the effective functioning of democracies than citizens’ faith in the fairness of the process whereby they elect their representatives – from voter registration, through the design of electoral systems to the conduct of campaigns. In elections in many parts of the world, including established democracies like Canada, that faith has been strained in recent years. In Canada, one response has been to call into question the practice of electing representatives in single-member districts on a first-past-the-post basis.

Would the integrity of the electoral process be served by changing Canada’s voting system? What does experience in other nations tell us? How can we ensure that Canadian elections function as true engines of democracy? Professor Pippa Norris, Director of the Electoral Integrity Project, will answer these and related questions at this critical moment in Canadian history, as legislators prepare recommendations to Parliament that may alter the electoral system that Canada has known since Confederation.