This election ‘fix’ won’t fly

Canadians are worried about Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s inaptly named Fair Elections Act, and rightly so. It’s an affront to democracy, and the Senate committee that has studied the bill as it wends its sorry way through Parliament could have done the nation a service by saying just that. But no such luck.

Instead, the Conservative-dominated committee has come up with a few proposed cosmetic fixes designed to grease the bill’s passage into law, rather than advocate a wholesale rewrite. That makes the Senate more of an enabler of bad legislation than a chamber of sober second thought. Once again, Canadians have been let down by the unelected upper chamber.

New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair deserves every encouragement as he tries to persuade Conservative MPs to lobby Harper not to abuse his majority by forcing through fundamental changes to the election laws without the support of a single other party. But few voters are likely to be holding their breath.

As the Star’s Tim Harper has reported, the Senate’s proposed “fixes” don’t begin to address the worst flaws of the act, which would hobble the Chief Electoral Officer, disenfranchise many thousands of voters, and give incumbents unfair advantage.

Bill C-23 is a blow to CEO Marc Mayrand’s office and independence, stripping him of power to probe election act abuses. It’s overly deferential to MPs who run afoul of election laws, cloaking probes in secrecy. And it hobbles the Chief Electoral Officer’s ability to encourage citizens to vote.

Beyond that, Bill C-23 unwisely bans both “vouching” and the use of voter information cards as proof of address, potentially disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters, mostly people with outdated addresses on their ID, students, seniors and First Nations people. Absent evidence of big-time fraud, of which there is none, this is overkill.

Finally, the bill lets victorious parties appoint poll supervisors, threatening the integrity of the process.

The Senate proposals, which a Commons committee will weigh after the Easter break, don’t remedy any of these major flaws.

What the Senate committee does propose is to drop an odious provision that would give well-financed, established parties (read: the ruling Tories) an advantage by allowing them to spend freely during elections to solicit contributions from past donors. That’s the only significant recommendation, and it’s good as far as it goes.

Additionally, the Senate indulges in some minor tinkering, including clarifying that Elections Canada’s “new, reduced role that ends democracy promotion” should not stop it from going into the schools to encourage kids to take their responsibilities seriously. The committee also felt the need to insist that elections officials should “expressly” be allowed to inform the public of problems with the electoral system. That records of robocalls be kept longer. And that First Nations bands, homeless shelters and seniors’ residence be required to attest to voters’ names and addresses, and that some electronic documents be accepted as ID.

Welcome as these modest changes are, they can’t save a fatally flawed bill. Rather, they would paper over the flaws. But Canadians who care will see through this charade. The Harper government should swallow hard and fix this legislation, or scrap it.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair deserves kudos for his stand against the inaptly named Fair Elections Act