(Ottawa) The Liberal government tabled a bill on Wednesday to update the Canada Elections Act — as part of its political pact with the New Democratic Party (NDP).
The Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions, Dominic LeBlanc, explained that the changes would give “more ways for Canadians to vote” and would “strengthen our measures to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
PHOTO SPENCER COLBY, THE CANADIAN PRESS
The Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions, Dominic LeBlanc
“Measures contained in the bill would add to our robust range of mechanisms aimed at combating foreign interference and disinformation, two growing phenomena in Western democracies,” mentioned the Liberal minister at a press briefing.
The bill, if passed, would add two additional days of early voting, make an on-campus voting program permanent and take steps to allow voters to vote at any polling location in their area. constituency.
It also proposes providing a way to vote on site for people living in long-term care facilities and improving the mail-in voting process.
Mr. LeBlanc, who is also Minister of Public Safety, stressed that the amendments are the result of collaboration with the New Democrats.
MP Daniel Blaikie negotiated the bill for the NDP. He was alongside Mr. LeBlanc during Wednesday’s press briefing.
“There are often Canadians who have difficulty balancing their professional and family obligations in the course of a day and going to the polling stations to be able to vote,” said Mr. Blaikie, who will leave his post as MP in the end of the month to head to a job with the premier of Manitoba.
“And that’s why we thought it was very important to try to expand access and have more days on which Canadians could vote,” he added.
The bill includes a study to expand federal elections to a three-day voting period rather than a single election day.
This is inconsistent with the agreement between the Liberals and New Democrats, which promised the parties would work together to make this a reality.
Mr. LeBlanc said the intention was for the election to take place on a Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so voters could cast their ballots immediately from any polling station in their riding.
But Elections Canada “identified some reasonable concerns,” including the difficulty of finding “suitable locations” for polling stations over a three-day period.
“Elections Canada presented us with thoughtful operational challenges,” said Mr. LeBlanc. We believe they need to be mandated by Parliament to come back with a clear timetable on how we can achieve this. We thought that was a very reasonable goal. »
Under the terms of the “support and confidence agreement,” New Democrats support the Liberal minority government on key votes in the House of Commons in exchange for progress on shared priorities.
The deal will reach its two-year anniversary this week.
Federal law requires the next election to take place no later than October 2025.
Mr. LeBlanc said the intention is for parliamentarians to “ensure that this legislation can be put in place as quickly as possible” so that the changes are ready by then.