There was a small crowd, but lively debate at the first of two electoral reform information sessions at Lambton College Thursday.
Several of Sarnia-Lambton's federal riding associations have collaborated with Lambton College's Centre for Social Justice to host the non-partisan events.
Co-organizer Bob Sutton says their main goal is to encourage people to be more aware.
"Canadians sometimes feel a disconnect between themselves and the Federal leadership in the country and those parties," says Sutton. "We've read a fair amount of research that suggests community members reaching out to community members to have conversations about their democracy really tends to motivate interest and participation."
"People come to recognize that there are others in my community that care about this and want to know more too and become more comfortable about the discussions."
Information was provided on Canada's current electoral system "first past the post" and alternatives including the ranked or preferential system, proportional and mixed-member proportional.
"We know we can't reach good decisions by consensus on every issue, because there are people, even in individual parties cooperating here, who have different perspectives," says Sutton. "But if we can continue a demonstration of basic maturity to learn together, inform our communities together and then have debates after words, I hope it's a step in a new direction."
Sutton recommends those seeking more information to visit www.aceproject.org or www.samaracanada.com
He says you can also submit your views to the House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform through it's e-consultation.
Another community engagement and discussion session was planned at 7pm in room A223 Lambton College.
