Electoral reform on the agenda
Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal will introduce election reform act without having shown it to the chief electoral officer.
OTTAWA — The federal government will introduce a comprehensive “election reform act” on Thursday without having shown the legislation to the chief electoral officer.
Tim Uppal, the minister of state for democratic reform, announced in question period that the long overdue piece of legislation would be tabled this week to “improve the integrity, accountability and administration of Canada’s election system.”
Last month, as Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand released a report recommending changes to respond to the robocall affair, he said he hadn’t been consulted by anyone in government about a new elections law. On Tuesday, Elections Canada spokeswoman Diane Benson said that Mayrand had not been consulted since that time, either.
A spokesperson for Uppal said late Tuesday that he met with Mayrand this week to discuss election reform but did not give Mayrand a copy of the bill.
Former chief electoral officer Jean- Pierre Kingsley said Tuesday it would have been better for the government to review the legislation with Mayrand before tabling it.
“It is always preferable to consult meaningfully the chief electoral officer on legislation affecting the Canada Elections Act before tabling it,” he said. “If they are going to be proposing changes in the procedures and the way of doing things, there is a practical element that the chief electoral officer is in an ideal position to comment. Instead of waiting for the bill to be tabled and go to a committee and say ‘ You should change this,’ it’s done beforehand.”
In March 2012, after reports of unethical telephone calls during the last election, Conservative MPs voted in favour of an NDP motion calling for legislation to be tabled within six months.
The government didn’t act until this week.
Last month, Mayrand tabled an in- depth report recommending urgent legislative changes to prevent dirty political calls and give investigators greater powers to tackle them when they take place.
Uppal told reporters Tuesday the act to be tabled this week will be based on Mayrand’s report, but also on the 1994 Lortie commission report on electoral reform, a report by the Institute for Research on Public Policy, and recommendations from a House of Commons committee.
By tabling a comprehensive bill, the government may seek to take the focus off changes required to deal with unethical calls, said Craig Scott, the NDP critic for democratic reform.
“We’re not just looking at fraud- call stuff,” he said. “We’re looking at other things. The question is whether the most crucial stuff is going to get buried in the details.”
Scott said he is also concerned that the reforms, which Mayrand has called urgent, could be derailed if the government prorogues before the next election. That would kill the bill.
Uppal’s office did not respond to calls requesting further comment Tuesday.
In his report, Preventing Deceptive Communications with Electors, Mayrand outlined suggestions for new elections rules. He recommended increasing penalties for violations and giving Elections Canada investigators broader powers to investigate complaints.
He also repeated an earlier proposal to give his office the power to require that political parties open their books, a recommendation that was previously rejected by a Conservativecontrolled parliamentary committee.
Mayrand also said it should be made illegal to impersonate an Elections Canada official, noting that neither the elections law nor the Criminal Code prevent the kind of ruse used by “Pierre Poutine,” the pseudonym of the person or persons behind misleading robocalls sent to voters in Guelph, Ont., in 2011.
The bill also suggested a registry of party phone calls to voters and new rules requiring them to clearly identify the origin of the calls.