Most Canadians happy with current voting system, but open to electoral reform: report

The report shows Canadians are willing to entertain changes to the system, as long as they don’t complicate the voting process.

Thestar.com
Jan. 24, 2017
By The Canadian Press

A report on the federal government’s online electoral reform survey says two-thirds of Canadians who responded are happy with how the current voting system works.

The report, quietly released online today by Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould, also suggests Canadians are willing to entertain changes to the system - provided they don’t complicate the voting process.

And while just over half of respondents say they are opposed to mandatory voting, they do support the idea of being able to cast a ballot online, just so long as the system is demonstrably secure.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to make the 2015 election the last held under the current first-past-the-post electoral system, although he has since shown signs of backing away from that commitment.

The government encouraged Canadians to take part in the MyDemocracy.ca survey, an online and phone survey about changing the electoral system that took place between early December and Jan. 15.

The report says more than 380,000 people responded, 96 per cent of whom live in Canada.

It says the results have been “weighted to the census” in order to make the findings more representative of the findings and more reflective of Canadians’ views “on a number of key considerations within the electoral reform discourse.”