By Chad Ingram

Published Oct. 27 2016

Numerous Minden Hills residents did not receive a recent mail-out from MP Jamie Schmale a mail-out that included a survey on whether residents believe the federal government should hold a national referendum on electoral reform.

Schmale’s executive assistant Dylan Robichaud told the Times the oversight was a result of a glitch with the House of Commons’ printing and mailing services and that MPs across the country have been affected by mix-ups.

While most Minden Hills residents did not receive the electoral reform mail-out some may have noticed they recently received mail from Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef.

“Printing and mailing services has assured me that they have been working with Canada Post to rectify the issue” Robichaud wrote in an email. “They’ve assured me that the next distribution list upload will include the missing Minden postal codes. We will continue to be diligent and ensure that constituents receive any publication our office sends out. We also try to make sure that constituents can have access to any of the publications by having them online or if they call we can direct mail them a copy of any of our publications upon request. We are regretful that this issue happened with such an important mailing. However being beyond our control we will continue to work with all those involved. We also encourage constituents to reach out to us any time on any issue they feel they’d like to reach out to us about.”

In the meantime Schmale released the results of the survey – a constituency referendum as he calls it –  showing that 87 per cent of the nearly 2500 returned ballots showed residents want the federal government to put the issue of electoral reform to a national referendum.

Nearly 12 per cent of respondents said they were opposed to a referendum on the issue and 1.3 per cent said they were undecided on the question.

I

n the lead-up to the 2015 election now-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that if the Liberal party formed government the 2015 election would be the last one to use single-member plurality or the first-past-the-post system.

MPs across the country have been asked to gather feedback from constituents and share it with a parliamentary committee on reform.

Schmale supports the existing electoral system.

A number of county residents believe Schmale should be holding townhall meetings on the issue as some MPs in other areas have done.