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CANADA House of Commons Debates VOLUME 141 Ï NUMBER 112 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 39th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Friday, February 16, 2007 Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 6917 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, February 16, 2007 The House met at 10 a.m. The point is that we are seen as a country that has a sound electoral system. We must, as our first responsibility to our democratic condition, ensure that this integrity continues and is improved wherever it can be. The amendments to this act mainly Prayers deal with the identification of the voter. I had the privilege of going with a Canadian team in 1990 to GOVERNMENT ORDERS Nicaragua to monitor an extremely contentious election. Members might recall that it was a time when the Nicaraguans were in the Ï (1005) middle of the civil war with the Contra rebels. It was a very dangerous time, yet the Sandinista government was submitting itself [English] to free and fair elections, which is the standard we use. CANADA ELECTIONS ACT I recall being up in the Honduran-Nicaraguan mountains in the The House resumed from February 12 consideration of the northwest of the country checking out small voting stations, one a motion that Bill C-31, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act broken down old schoolhouse in the mountains, where there were and the Public Service Employment Act, be read the third time and literally hundreds of people lined up in the very hot sun. Many had passed. walked for many hours to be able to exercise their right to vote. Hon. Stephen Owen (Vancouver Quadra, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we are at third reading of this important bill now and I would like to There was one very poignant moment. One woman had walked begin by recounting how we have come to this place. for two hours, lined up for two hours, got to the front of the line, and The recommendations for amendments to the Canada Elections did not have proper identification. She was heading back, another Act emanate from the report of the Chief Electoral Officer following four hours both ways, to her village to get her voter card. That was the January 2006 election. That is normal, of course, as he reports on the importance she placed on going through that electoral process. It the activities of elections and points out any failings or any also reflected the seriousness with which the Nicaraguan electoral improvements that may be made in the election process. commission, under the direction, guidance or advice of Canadian officials, was taking the integrity of the process. He produced that report and of course we went on to consider it in committee. The committee report went to the government and this When we have an international standard that we are often asked to bill is the answer, which falls very much in line with both the Chief advise on and monitor, the question is this: is an election free and Electoral Officer's report and the report of the Standing Committee fair? Of course free means the right of all adult citizens to vote in an on Procedure and House Affairs to the government. This will bring election, but fair means that it has integrity, that there are no into force, for the most part, the recommended amendments from the opportunities to stuff ballot boxes or for people to disguise their Chief Electoral Officer. identities and vote improperly. That integrity is absolutely critical if we are going to ask our citizens to come forward and put their trust The notion of the integrity of our elections is absolutely critical to in the electoral and democratic system. Therefore, free and fair is an our democracy, just as it is anywhere else in the world. It is immensely important point. interesting that Canadians are asked to monitor and help establish electoral commissions and the rules and procedures for elections in Ï (1010) many newly democratizing countries. In just the last few years, in the Ukraine there was major Canada We know that in the U.S. presidential elections in 2000 confusion Corps participation. Canadian teams of electoral monitors and was caused in Florida when voting machines were found not to be advisers have been involved in the Palestinian authority and in operating properly. There were irregularities. That cast a pall over the Afghanistan. There was a team of Canadian officials in Bangladesh election, which I think many Americans to this day have not preparing for the election that should have taken place last month but recovered from in terms of the feeling of unfairness that the vote may has been delayed because of disruptions in that country. well have gone the other way had there not been those irregularities. 6918 COMMONS DEBATES February 16, 2007 Government Orders Let us look at the process under Bill C-31. It is not perfect. It Ï (1015) probably never will be, but it is a reasonable advance in ensuring the integrity of that vote. For instance, there are improvements for access for the disabled. There are more convenient locations for the advance We are concerned. I think we should express our concerns not by polls. dropping our standards, but rather by redoubling our efforts through our electoral commission and the Chief Electoral Officer to get to The access of candidates and officials to gated communities is those areas, to get to those people where there is evidence of low clarified. The candidates' access to malls, privately owned public participation. spaces, has been clarified. This is immensely important for any of us who have been candidates. Increasingly we are not going to meet people by knocking on doors but by going to malls, so this is More broadly, as we talk about the Elections Act in this country important. we must attend to the issue of electoral reform, and we are in some parts of the country, in some provinces. We simply cannot continue Also, there is an increased effort with the outreach provisions to to have dropping participation rates and fractured minority get electoral officials to people unable to get to the polls. governments that do not properly represent the majority of the I think these are immensely important improvements in that we people in this country. must make sure our citizens have adequate access, but we must be vigilant against any irregularities. We must have some reform that will not do away with out What we have done in the committee, both in receiving the Chief constituency-based, first past the post system, but that at least will Electoral Officer's report and considering it ourselves and in apply some adequate level of participation and proportionality so considering the government's response in Bill C-31, is to turn our that the number of seats in the House represents in some better attention to whether we were putting barriers in the way for people. proportion than it does now the percentage of the vote achieved. They may be in remote communities, in aboriginal villages or in the inner cities. They may be living in shelters or they may be homeless. I think that all members of the committee from all parties were very We have had some good experience with that, both in this country seriously attending to the question. How can we ensure to the and abroad. In 2004, in the throne speech of the former Liberal greatest extent possible, without risking the integrity of the system, government, with the encouragement of the NDP, I must say, we put that these people have access to vote? I think this was probably the forth the objective of studying electoral reform. A special committee toughest situation that all of us had to face. of the House was to look into this. It was one of the processes that was cut short by the unnecessary election, if I may say so, of January We charged the Chief Electoral Officer to do a number of things. 2006. One was to ensure that areas of low enumeration and low participation were identified and targeted with extra resources to attempt to ensure access to identification and the voting process. However, there we are and here we are, and what are we going to do about it? I would suggest that we charge the Standing Committee In regard to remote aboriginal villages, we heard evidence of on Procedure and House Affairs with this as the appropriate venue people having difficulty providing adequate identification, so we and place for this to be considered very carefully. also charged the Chief Electoral Officer to, first of all, recognize the aboriginal status card, which has a picture on it. It does not always have the address, but that card would be one of the recognized pieces The government, through the Prime Minister, announced two or of identification, as well as a letter from the band manager if the three weeks ago that in fact there was going to be a communication, address was not on it, confirming that person's residence in that a consultation, with Canadians over issues of electoral reform, reserve area or wherever the person might live. Senate reform, decorum in this House, which is a very important Those are reasonable attempts to deal with this tension between issue, and public engagement. That is a bit curious, because for most freedom and security: security in the system and freedom to vote.

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