Federal electoral reform for the Yukon could mean voting for a second member of Parliament in the next federal election.

Among the recommendations the Law Commission of Canada made to the government in looking at electoral reform was allocating three more seats in Parliament which would take it from 308 to 311 for the three territories.

The commission's researcher, Steven Bittle, will discuss the commission's experience looking at electoral reform in a public presentation at 7:00 this evening in the Fireside Room of the Yukon Inn.

'My sense is, in the Yukon, the discussion is just getting going,' Bittle told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Bittle was invited to give the presentation by the Yukon Citizens for Electoral Reform. That group was formed after former commissioner Ken McKinnon released his report for the territorial government on electoral reform.

His report called for legislative reforms rather than electoral reforms, which would see changes to the way people are elected.

After a day of meetings with various officials and groups like Rotary, Bittle stressed he's not here to tell Yukoners how or if changes are needed, but rather his experience in researching the topic.

Work on the report of federal electoral reform entitled Voting Counts: Electoral Reform for Canada started in 2002 and was delivered to Parliament in March 2004 with a recommendation that Canada move to a mixed member proportional system. That's where a portion of seats are set aside to be distributed based on the percentage of votes cast for a party and the other seats are set aside for the constituency votes.

A purely proportional system would see seats distributed based entirely on the percentage of votes a party received.

Over the course of his research, which included public meetings and other consultation, Bittle said he found having a constituency representative in Parliament is important for most Canadians.

The proposal by the law commission would also mean giving voters two places to mark their X one for the party they want to vote for and one for the individual who they want to represent their constituency.

The party would have a list of candidates who would fill the seats set aside for the percentage of votes.

It was due to that the commission made the proposal that each of the territories have an additional MP.

'The territories presented a unique situation,' said Bittle.

The recommendations could also mean more representation in Parliament by minority groups and women.

In the constituency-based past-the-post system inherited by the British, parties tend to run those they believe are the 'safest' candidate to get elected, which has traditionally been Caucasian men.

Under the mixed system, parties could include those minority candidates on their list of those who may be sent to Parliament to represent the party.

The proportional system favours those parties which have support spread out across the country.

The Green Party, for example, may have ended up with a seat in Parliament in the Jan. 23 election with more than 650,000 votes cast for the party across the country.

'We heard that parties matter,' said Bittle.

Over the course of his research, Bittle also looked at proportional and mixed systems of government in Germany, New Zealand, Scotland and other countries.

The federal government is required to respond to the report, but there is no timeline in place for that response, said Bittle.