The newly appointed chair of the Yukon citizens’ assembly on electoral reform has previously expressed her preference for scrapping the first-past-the-post system and replacing it with another model.
The territorial citizens’ assembly is tasked with recommending whether the current voting system should stay or go.
Sara McPhee-Knowles’ appointment as chair was announced Feb. 2 in a press release via the Yukon Legislative Assembly.
According to her biography in the press release, McPhee-Knowles has a PhD in philosophy specializing in public policy from the University of Saskatchewan, where she is an adjunct professor in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. She has been seconded from her assistant professor position with the School of Business and Leadership at Yukon University.
Her research looks at policy challenges related to food security, innovation and the COVID-19 response in the Yukon context.
She made the comments on the voting system at a public hearing during a special committee on electoral reform in Whitehorse on Sept. 7, 2022.
“Personally, I would prefer to see the current system replaced with either a dual member proportional or mixed member proportional system,” McPhee-Knowles said during the hearing.
When asked at the time by MLA for Mount Lorne-Southern Lakes John Streicker of the Yukon Liberal Party about proportionality, McPhee-Knowles suggested the need to move to somewhat larger ridings to maintain geographic representation. She indicated more seats or a different division of the present 19 seats in the legislature would be necessary in that case.
Yukon Party MLA for Lake Laberge Brad Cathers, who is the Official Opposition’s democratic institutions critic, told the News by phone on Feb. 5 that his party had voted against establishing a citizens’ assembly in the first place due to the likelihood of bias and partiality in the process. He said the Yukon Party wasn’t consulted on the chair’s appointment.
“The Liberals and the NDP appointing a chair who’s already publicly lobbied for a specific outcome demonstrates poor judgment on the part of those political parties,” Cathers said. “For the process to have any credibility, the chair of a citizens’ assembly needs to be seen as impartial and unbiased.”
In fact, MLAs from the territorial political parties didn’t make the appointment.
Dan Cable is the independent clerk of the Yukon Legislative Assembly who made the appointment. He told the News by phone on Feb. 5 that he appointed McPhee-Knowles based on her being local and having extensive experience in public policy.
Cable compared the appointment of the chair to a judge. Previous remarks don’t preclude somebody from acting independently, Cable said, adding that if he thought that this person was incapable of separating the duties of the chair from previous opinions, then he wouldn’t have appointed her.
Cable noted McPhee-Knowles is not actually a voting member; as the chair, she’s the moderator.
The Yukon citizens’ assembly on electoral reform is a representative body of Yukoners created to recommend a model for electing members of the Yukon Legislative Assembly, according to the press release. The citizens’ assembly will consider current and alternative voting systems and issue a report by Oct. 31.
Membership of the citizens’ assembly will be made up of two individuals from each of the 19 electoral districts in the territory. Members will be selected randomly from the nearly 1,800 respondents of a census conducted by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics in winter 2023 of all Yukon residents aged 16 and up who declared they are willing to participate.
McPhee-Knowles, who oversees the citizens’ assembly, will be supervising the selection of members, per the release.
By email, Cable said that another name was recommended to him but he chose McPhee-Knowles given her qualifications.
Cable said the chair must be familiar with the topic and live in the academic world.
Cable noted there will be differing opinions as part of the democratic process, but he operates at arm’s length of MLAs to carry out the order of the assembly which was voted in the majority in the house to have a citizens’ assembly with a chair who acts independently to arrive at a report that recommends either keeping the current system or getting a new one.
“I have every confidence that she can carry out her duties without undue influence of the up to 38 people who will make the final decision for the report. Like all teaching academics, she is used to gathering information and presenting it in her professional role without offering personal opinions,” he said.
A separate commission of five people has been struck to examine electoral district boundaries. The commission is intended to address changing demographics and population shifts, for example, in Whitehorse’s Whistle Bend neighbourhood.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
