OTTAWA — As soon as the Conservatives unveiled their proposed election reforms, NDP leader Tom Mulcair said he knew the contentious legislation would become the biggest battle in Parliament.
“When this one started, I sat down with our senior team and I said, ‘This is the biggest fight of the session,’” Mulcair said in an interview on The West Block with Tom Clark. “In fact, it’s the biggest fight before the next election.”
Communicating their sense of urgency to the general public, and convincing the government to amend certain parts of the bill, however, won’t be easy.
The legislation, known as the Fair Elections Act, its provisions and potential ramifications are complicated, Mulcair said.
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The chorus of critics to the Conservatives’ Bill C-23 has grown steadily since it was tabled in early February, and now includes the likes of current and former chief electoral officers — both federal and provincial — current and former commissioners for Elections Canada and the country’s former auditor general, Sheila Fraser.
Chief among the criticisms is the proposal to eliminate the practices of vouching, wherein one voter can vouch for the identity of another who is lacking appropriate proof of address, and of accepting voter information cards as a valid form of identification.
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Those provisions alone could disenfranchise more than half a million voters, critics have warned repeatedly as the bill continues winding its way through Parliament.
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Despite the stream of election experts criticizing the legislation, the Conservatives haven’t publicly offered any concrete indication they plan to amend the bill.
Last week Minister of State for Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre said the bill he is tasked with selling is “terrific” just the way it is.
Other Conservatives have brushed off the critics, accusing them of being ill-informed and resistant to change. The Harper government is adamant the changes are necessary to heighten the integrity of Canada’s election systems and keep the country’s democracy secure.
Almost as soon as the NDP read throughout the lengthy bill, the party started pushing for cross-country consultations. The Conservatives would have none of it, prompting the NDP to hold its own.
The thorn in that thinking, however, is the fact Harper has a majority in both chambers, affording him the luxury of being able to push any legislation through, regardless of any criticisms.
Mulcair, however, seems confident the prime minister can’t simply ignore the mounting pressure.
“When this fight started, people were telling us there wasn’t much we could do because they had a majority,” Mulcair said. “There’s a lot that we can do internally and procedurally, but ultimately they do have a majority. But the whole thing is about our democracy, respect for our institutions and we’re just going to have to make sure that the Conservatives finish by understanding that.
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