Canada Elections Act  The bill seeks to plug the infamous black hole so often denounced by the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Jean-Pierre Kingsley. The limits will also apply to nominations and party leadership races. Riding associations, until now exempt from having to report their sources of revenue outside of election campaigns, will now be required to report all of this information.

Nuclear Safety and Control Act  If we had a good system in Canada, we would not be having all of the hearings that we are, and we would not have asked the Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Kingsley, to appear before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs so that we could explain how dissatisfied people are with the process used by the commission. We are told that it is the Speaker of the House of Commons that names the two other members of the commission.

Federal Electoral Boundaries  On October 9, 2002, in response to my letter dated October 1, 2002, Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley, wrote “I would like to make it clear that the federal electoral boundaries commissions established in the ten provinces operate at arm's length from Elections Canada. Their independence is a fundamental aspect of the federal readjustment process”.

Governor General's Award  Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise to congratulate this year's recipients of the Governor General's award in commemoration of the Persons case: Yvonne Bourgeois of New Brunswick, Sonia Bitar of Alberta, Elizabeth Mackenzie of the Northwest Territories, Sabine Sonnemann of Ontario, Cherry Kingsley of British Columbia, and Bindu Dhaliwal of Ontario, who received the youth award, a new award this year. This past weekend I met with one of the recipients, Ms. Kingsley. She recounted how through most of her young life she lived with addiction, abuse and exploitation.

Canada Elections Act  I must tell the House that the Bloc Quebecois is drawing up a list of the problems from the November 27, 2000 election and we will have an opportunity to come back to them. I personally advised Mr. Kingsley that there will have to be improvements. This bill introduced by the government House leader gives returning officers authority to try alternative voting means, including electronic voting.

Assisted Human Reproduction Act  Yet adult stem cells are now beginning to truly alleviate the suffering in human beings. We have celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Michael Kingsley really promoting embryonic stem cell research in the Washington Post and on Crossfire . Yet these major advances are being almost totally disregarded by the American press and less so by the Canadian press.

Canada Elections Act  I clearly indicate, as I do in Canada, that the present system is an anachronism. Mr. Kingsley feels it is imperative for the method of appointing returning officers to be changed, so that they are appointed in a competitive process in order to ensure their total independence from the government and to give the appearance of fairness and neutrality toward all party candidates involved.

Canada Elections Act  That is not to say that this is not the proper forum to discuss some of the problems and some of the changes that could occur, but I hope that at that time in particular we will have an opportunity to pose questions to the chief electoral officer and his staff regarding some of these issues that arose during the last campaign. From these problems and this experience, we might get some idea from Mr. Kingsley, the chief electoral officer, of the cost of creating this permanent electoral list, of the attempts that will of course follow to keep it up to date, and of the safeguards that ensure it is accurate, for this in and of itself has to be the fundamental purpose of having a permanent voters list, a list that reflects the eligible voters of the various constituencies around the country.

Canada Elections Act  The Bloc Quebecois would have expected the government to take advantage of this bill to amend certain features of the Canada Elections Act. In any event, we know that, following an election, the chief electoral officer, Mr. Kingsley, will have to meet with members of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to report on his work. Members of the Bloc Quebecois will have certain concerns. In the short time left to me, I want to share just a few of them with the House.

Canada Elections Act  It is unfortunate when we see that democracy itself is pretty unhealthy right now with low voter turnout. The chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, says that maybe we should have mandatory voting. I do not know if that it is the answer, although I do appreciate that people are at least asking the questions about what we can do to make sure that this place becomes a hair more relevant in people's lives, other than just in their chequebooks, pocketbooks and pay stubs.

Supply  Let me also mention a statement made by the chief electoral officer himself, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, on October 28, 1999. He said: —when I go out on the international scene I do not recommend that the Canadian system be emulated where it comes to the appointment of returning officers.

Presence In Gallery  I would ask them, as I call their names, to please stand: Sonia Bitar of Edmonton, Alberta; Yvonne Bourgeois of Kent, New Brunswick; Bindu Dhaliwal of Mississauga, Ontario; Cherry Kingsley of Richmond, B.C.; Elizabeth McKenzie of Rae, NWT; Sabine Sonnemann of Newmarket, Ontario.

Official Languages Commissioner  According to the article in the National Post , two people are on the short list: Jean-Jacques Blais and Jean-Pierre Kingsley. Since Mr. Kingsley indicated in the same report that he has never been contacted in this regard, is the government not getting ready to reward another friend of the regime and hand out a patronage appointment to Mr.

Division No. 1258  Speaker, I understand that is so at this point in time. I guess we will see what the courts say with respect to Mr. Kingsley's ruling as well as the higher court. We will see where that goes. In any event I wanted to point out on this very important bill that the Senate plays a very important role. It has a recommendation where the health sector will be exempted somewhat for the next little while.

Canada Elections Act  I asked the Chief Electoral Officer if, when Elections Canada was helping third world countries and emerging democracies to set up their elections legislation, he ever recommended the system of patronage that we have here in Canada. Jean Pierre Kingsley, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, said: —obviously when I go out on the international scene I do not recommend that the Canadian system be emulated where it comes to the appointment of returning officers.