Mr. Chairman, with respect to the national register of electors, I've alluded in my introductory remarks to the fact that a fixed election date would allow Elections Canada to open the offices of returning officers earlier, something like a month before, to do targeted updates; that is to say, an equivalent of what is done at the start of the electoral period, which is targeted revision. It would be possible to manage it, in my view, more professionally and do it with MPs and known candidates and the representatives of parties if they don't have known candidates. To flip that over into the election and knowing when that date is would allow that to happen on a regular basis.
It's simply not possible to do it under the present system, and that is one of the advantages. There may be something that has percolated as an issue that needs to be settled, and when you know when the event is going to take place in terms of the register, you can tackle that in a particular way to solve it, rather than hesitate about doing it because you know you're not going to be able to finish it if the election is called that week rather than this week. It's somewhat nebulous as an answer, but I think people can appreciate what I'm trying to say.
With respect to other amendments, I have given you our best thinking about what would need to be amended. There only two things. One of them is the Treasury Board directive on advertising by the government--four weeks before--and possibly political parties. This means, don't touch third parties; don't touch candidates and what they can do before the election; don't touch anything except the two things I've suggested. In my view, in light of the Constitution, I don't think anything else would be warranted with freedom of speech, freedom of association, and all those other things. I don't think at this stage I have any indication that anything else would need to be touched in terms of the advertising regime or the financing scheme for the election.
