Thank you, Chair.
I'm not sure that I need eight minutes, but in this public forum I would like to express our deep appreciation for the work Mr. Kingsley has done for the last 17 years in the service of our country through the most basic and fundamental structure, which is our electoral process, and well beyond Canada's borders, in working in so many different countries to spread our experience and to learn as well from him and his colleagues how precious what we have here is, but also to see the extraordinary enthusiasm people in newly democratizing countries bring to their electoral process when they're given this opportunity for the first time. I think his experiences, as he's talked publicly of them over the years, provide a great lesson for Canadians in what we have and what we must treasure and what we must use.
In thanking Mr. Kingsley, I could mention that one reflection of the fine state with which he is leaving Elections Canada is the speed and ease and unanimity with which his successor, Mr. Mayrand, was approved by this committee and the House of Commons.
Perhaps, Mr. Kingsley, I could just pose the question. Since we've just finished in the House with Bill C-31 on voter integrity, could you comment on the apparent—and perhaps it's just apparent and it's not accurate—greater scrutiny that is applied in newly democratizing countries with their first electoral experiences, in terms of voter identification and protection against abuse? We have had some very interesting and challenging discussions here and in the House about whether we were going too far, whether we were putting too many impediments, whether the bar was too high. Yet it seemed at times that what we were suggesting, with your recommendation, as more stringent tests of identity proof still fell short of processes we recommend to other countries designing their first electoral process.