The main charge for the editorial team — one of us then research director of the Governance Program at the Institute, the other two long-time collabora- i tors on the Canadian Election Study and other projects — was to identify key areas of the democratic system potentially of concern and to commission research and commentary on these matters from recognized experts. [...] In light of the quality of the work produced and the cen- trality of the issue to current political debates, the decision was made to pull together much of this material in a single place. [...] The second is the recent convening of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform, which is deliberating on the merits of alternative electoral systems and will put its recommendation for reform to the voters of British Columbia in a referendum that will accompany the next provincial election. [...] If the atmosphere of relations was tense following the dramatic near miss of the 1995 referendum and the bitter debates engendered by the 1998 reference case on Quebec seces- sion, the Supreme Court's capacious decision provided a measure of closure to at least one dimension of the debate, while the decline in PQ popularity allowed for the election of a new government more strongly committed to th [...] When broader issues of structural reform arose in the postwar period, they were usually, in keeping with the priorities of the time, couched in the context of the national unity debate.