A tattered Canadian flag flies over a building in Attawapiskat, Ont., on November 29, 2011. The remote northern Ontario First Nation has declared a state of emergency after numerous suicide attempts this week.

Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Parliament Hill has been through a week of deep thought on electoral reform, and some innovative thinking on financing. But what was most notable over the past few days was not so much thought, but anguish.

Suicide — how to allow it, in some cases, and how to prevent it, especially on First Nations reserves — has caught up politicians from all parties in an emotional turmoil that knows few party boundaries.

Soon, though, they will need to put the anguish behind them and make decisions that will affect many families across Canada.

Here's how politics affected our lives this week:

ANGUISH: The federal and Ontario governments are sending in health care workers, mental health workers, money for youth, and plenty of high-level political attention now that the remote First Nation community of Attawapiskat declared a state of emergency over its alarming suicide rate. Police had to break up a suicide pact among teenagers on the reserve on Monday, and cries for help are growing louder.

There is not a politician in the land who believes the experts and the money are any kind of lasting solution. But what is the solution for a problem steeped in poverty and troubling history that keeps reappearing?

At the same time, some forms of suicide have now been codified and circumscribed in federal legislation that was tabled this Thursday. The right-to-die bill needs to be passed by June to conform to the Supreme Court's order that Canada cannot let dying people suffer unnecessarily.

But the new bill does not sit well with many people, and it will now face a rough ride in the House of Commons, the Senate and among the general public. The bill would allow the assisted suicide option for dying people who are in distress — but not if they are under 18, and not if they once gave an advance directive and now have dementia.

Suicide is a subject that makes many a politician squeamish, but one that is in their faces right now and needs to be dealt with rationally.

ELECTORAL REFORM: Discussions about how to replace the only electoral system present-day Canadians have ever known are heating up.

The Liberals promised that the 2015 election would be the last one fought under a first-past-the-post winner-takes-all system. The goal is to modernize the voting system, encourage voter turnout, and make sure votes aren't perceived to be wasted. But the Liberals have yet to say what will replace today's system, and Elections Canada needs a couple of years' leeway to set up a new one. So time is running short.

This week, Maryam Monsef, the minister for democratic institutions, laid out some principles to serve as a basis for reform — principles which are to guide a yet-to-be-formed all-party committee which would consult with the public and eventually make recommendations.

Monsef says the new system must be perceived as legitimate by the public; must give Canadians confidence they can influence the political process; must ensure inclusive politics; must not be too complex; must reduce barriers to voting; must consider the relationship between citizens and their representatives; must protect the integrity of a person's ballot; and must inspire Canadians to find common ground.

But opposition parties say the fix is in, and the Liberals have already rejected proportional representation (the NDP's favoured solution) as well as the status quo (what many Conservatives would prefer). So finding common ground is already proving difficult, and the process has yet to begin.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016