Evidence of meeting #26 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vouching.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:50 p.m.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
They searched databases—they searched over 100 million databases across the United States, and they found 35,000 examples in one state alone.
9:50 p.m.
Professor, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, As an Individual
When I looked into this myself, I found that what happens is, as I said, there are some errors. In other words, in particular, the electoral register in the United States is far from what one might hope for in a professional electoral register. Part of the reason is that the elections are administered at the local level and by partisan officials. Partisan officials and local officials don't necessarily have the right standards, so I certainly would welcome a more accurate voter register, and one that was comprehensive, which did not have people who were deceased, who had moved out of the area. We're all in favour, I think you'll agree, Mr. Opitz, on security and honesty of your voter register list. Nobody disputes that. The question is what are the ways in which you get error.
One of the ways in which you get error in the United States is the localization of the electoral administration and the fact that it's done on an amateur basis, if we can put it like that. A more professional organization like Elections Canada has nowhere near any of those sorts of problems and is much more capable, professional, and accountable in how it creates its electoral register, so I think there are certain problems.
9:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
Now actually it is Mr. Opitz speaking. That was Mr. Lukiwski, and he's far better looking than I am.
9:55 p.m.
Some hon. members
No.
9:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
Yes, I know, I'm throwing him a bone there.
I would like to go back to voter encouragement and information. It's in the interest of all of us in this room to enfranchise voters, and there's nobody in this room who understands the value of a vote better than me, having won by 26, and having had to go to the Supreme Court to maintain my seat here in this House.
To my honourable colleague's question, nobody has to be interested, but how do we inspire people to vote? Professor, you're in a university. You've seen university kids, Professor Pammett, and they have so many different interests right now, so many things going around with exams and courses that it's very hard to get youth interested. However, we have done one wonderful thing. The CIC has produced a guide, Discover Canada, and one of the things in the Discover Canada guide is a section on federal elections that talks about voting and the rights—
9:55 p.m.
Conservative
9:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
Okay.
Professor Pammett, what would you suggest? What other means of popular communication like Facebook, Twitter, Google ads, things like that, could Elections Canada contribute to?
9:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Go ahead, Professor Pammett. We'll let you answer the last bit of this question. Mr. Opitz has taken his time.
9:55 p.m.
Professor, Political Science, Carleton University, As an Individual
Thank you.
We see a lot of students in university who are not interested, but being political science professors, we see the more interested ones. It's hard to say exactly what would engage others, but the main thing is that young people in particular need to be shown that the issues that are there are of relevance to them.
This is partly political parties that need to do this, but there is no particular reason why the messages that come out of the election administration advertising, which are that you need to speak for yourself rather than having other people speak for you, that those couldn't go along very well with the messages of other parties in elections that the issues are of concern to you. It can fit together.
I see my colleague has his hand up.
9:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Yes, I'm trying to slow you down. We're well over Mr. Opitz's time, and that does finish the time for this panel.
I would like to thank you all for coming tonight and helping us with this, from beautiful Australia to snowy Newfoundland and Labrador, and from right here in Ottawa.
We will suspend for a couple of minutes to go in camera for committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]