The Yukon has a prominent spot right now when it comes to citizens’ assemblies around the world, according to a political scientist.
Prof. Jonathan Rose, who is department head of political studies at Queen’s University, is stoked to see the territory at the “forefront of a global movement of citizens’ assemblies, whereby random selection of citizens are chosen to deliberate and learn and make recommendations about sometimes really complicated issues.”
By Oct. 31, the Yukon citizens’ assembly is charged with recommending whether the Yukon should keep the current first-past-the-post way of voting or move to a different system.
Rose researches deliberative democracy, where citizens’ assemblies are used as a vehicle for public participation. He brought his expertise to the Yukon, where a citizens’ assembly on electoral reform is underway.
He called it an “amazing opportunity” for Yukoners to participate, with the assembly by having their say on what future elections will look like in the territory.
“Yukoners should be really proud of the fact that this is only the third citizens’ assembly at the sub-national level that's happened in Canada on electoral reform,” he said.
From 2021 to 2023, the special committee on electoral reform heard from Yukoners, with 63 per cent of survey respondents indicating they supported establishing a citizens' assembly to look into different voting systems.
The names of all the members selected for the Yukon citizens' assembly haven't been publicly released to respect their privacy, according to the citizens' assembly's website, which compares being selected for the citizens' assembly to being selected for jury duty.
Eight meeting days are being planned from May through September before the members deliberate and prepare a final report to be delivered to the speaker of the Yukon Legislative Assembly. It's up to the legislature to determine the next steps, like whether the question will go to referendum.
Rose spent the past weekend assisting Sara McPhee-Knowles, who chairs the citizen’s assembly, and its 38 members — two from each electoral district across the territory — think about how elections are done around the world.
He presented different voting systems for members to weigh in terms of fairness and what best reflects Yukoners’ values.
“It's something we sort of take for granted, because we just do it sort of automatically. We don't think about the consequences,” he said.
He taught the assembly members that elections have consequences.
“Both in terms of the outcome, but also in terms of the things that people think are important. And we don't think about that, because it's something we've grown up with. We've always done it this way,” he said.
“But when you expose people to different ways of thinking about how choices are made, how outcomes are created, it opens up a new perspective.”
While Prince Edward Island and Lethbridge, Alta., have held citizens’ assemblies on different matters, Rose noted they’re similar in the sense that they bring together a group of random people without any particular ideas or expertise to make a decision with impact.
“The principle behind it is really quite profoundly democratic. It's if you provide people with knowledge and empower them with the ability to make thoughtful collective decisions, are they up for the task?” Rose said.
“It turns out that when you do this all around the world, citizens rise to the occasion.”
Rose explained how members of such assemblies come together to make recommendations that “transcend their own narrow, particular interest” by parking their biases, personal opinions and preferences aside.
McPhee-Knowles said the Yukon citizens’ assembly members represent a “diverse” group with Yukoners of different geographic areas, ages, backgrounds, perspectives and interests. She said the group set out values that guide how the assembly will work together and values that should be emphasized in the system at one of its first meetings.
“They really are going back to those values for working together, and including things like respectful disagreements, and doing a really great job of listening to one another and being really thoughtful and in their approach and in their conversations,” she said.
"They're really taking in a lot of information really quickly and thinking about it, and really thinking about the Yukon context as well, which is so important.”
Members of the public can weigh in to the citizens' assembly through written, audio or video submissions, which the citizens' assembly's website indicates will be made public.
McPhee-Knowles explained the citizens assembly on electoral reform is happening in parallel with the electoral boundaries commission, which was appointed in December 2023 to review the electoral districts. In May, the commission released its interim report, which sets out proposed changes to the electoral district boundaries.
The commission has happened before and will keep happening, whereas the citizens’ assembly is likely a one-off.
All of this is happening with municipal, territorial and federal elections on the horizon.
Rose noted there are some matters that politicians shouldn’t be making decisions about — like how they are elected — because it’s in their self-interest.
“It's better to have the people for whom elections are really all about make that decision," he said. “It shouldn't be the purview of experts, academics or policy experts. Elections are for people, and why not have people make that decision?”
Yukon citizens’ assembly members had the same question the News posed to Rose: What is the best electoral system for the Yukon?
“it's not for me to say,” he said. “It's for you to decide.”
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
