ABOVE: NDP critical of Conservative tactics over Fair Elections Act
OTTAWA – New Democrat MPs are tying the House of Commons in procedural knots to protest the government’s plan to curtail debate on its proposed overhaul of the Canada Elections Act.
During the first hour of debate on the 242-page bill on Wednesday, government House leader Peter Van Loan gave notice that he intended to cut off debate and send the bill to committee today.
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But NDP MPs are now using every procedural trick in the book to prevent Van Loan from moving the time allocation motion.
Among other things, the bill would end the practice of allowing people to vouch for other voters who lack identification, allow political parties to spend more during campaigns, impose rules for using robocalls and impose stiffer penalties on those who abuse automated phone messaging.
The NDP had proposed that the bill be sent to committee before a vote at second reading, which would have allowed greater scope for amending the bill but Tory MPs denied the needed unanimous consent.
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NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says that and the motion to shut down debate demonstrate the Conservatives are trying to push through legislation that is designed to load the dice in their favour.
“Passing major changes to the Elections Act should be done in a non-partisan way, consulting with experts and all parties,” he said in a statement from his office.
“Instead, Conservatives are shutting down debate to ram through a bill that gives them an advantage. This is wrong – but Canadians know they can count on the NDP to stand up to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.”
Mulcair said the Harper government’s use of time allocation – 56 times by the NDP’s count – is without precedent.
“It’s an affront to democracy, and we will fight them every step of the way. The sad irony is that they’re shutting down democratic debate on a bill that further erodes the democratic rights of Canadians, especially for the most vulnerable.”
Former elections watchdog Jean-Pierre Kingsley also bemoaned the lack of multi-party consensus in the approach to electoral reforms.
In an interview, the former chief electoral officer said at one time reforms used to pass through Parliament relatively smoothly because the government consulted in advance with opposition parties and Elections Canada to ensure legislation was perceived as non-partisan.
Kingsley said that process has been gradually breaking down for years but it’s “entirely of another order” today.
“It’s so hyper-partisan that even the good that’s in the bill, people are just not willing to accept that there could be some good, they’re just saying, ‘There must be something that we don’t understand. What is it that they’re trying to do’?”
Kingsley successor as chief electoral officer, Marc Mayrand, was not consulted on the current bill.
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