Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to go back to the voter identification procedure. The members around the table have all campaigned and, like me, have had occasion to observe that, in election campaigns, when we enter residential buildings, multiple-unit dwellings, at the entrance, where the mail boxes are, we see a series of voter information cards in the blue recycling bin or else outside scattered across the lawn. In the 2004 election, I brought back approximately 150 to the office of the returning officer. You know that's the preferred method for identifying voters.
First, I'd like to hear from the Bloc québécois representative, then from those of the other parties. I began making my colleagues around the table aware of the need to improve the Elections Act in this regard, and I sense that progress has been made. I refer you to what is in effect in Quebec. The Quebec system doesn't have the reputation of working poorly. No one has questioned the democratic principle of elections and referendums in Quebec. I refer you to section 337 of Quebec's Election Act, which states:
Each elector shall declare, to the deputy returning officer and the poll clerk, his name and address and, when so required, his date of birth.
I can say that I'm Bill Clinton and give a date of birth and an address. Perhaps I'm suffering from a split personality, and I'm inwardly convinced that I am Bill Clinton. That's why the act provides that the elector shall state certain information and also provides:
In addition, each elector shall produce as identification [...]
It then lists various documents that may be used to establish one's identity in Quebec: the health insurance card issued by the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec, driver's licence issued by the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, Canadian passport issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs Canada or any other document that has been issued by the government and is determined by regulation of the government, where there is another identification document that may be appropriate.
I would therefore like the representatives of each party to give us their opinion. Would it be a good idea to have the equivalent of that or something similar in the federal act? Of course, things are progressing. Among other things, there is the fact that we have the date of birth on the electoral lists. I don't know whether that's attributable to the change of government—I don't want to incense the Conservatives—but that kind of information is very useful. For example, in Lac-Saint-Jean, there may be 112 persons with the name of Marcel Tremblay. One was born in 1922, and the person before us seems to be 24, unless he's had access to the fountain of youth and has stayed young...
I'd like to have your comments on voter identification.