Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's probably a big part of keeping you grounded. If I may, I have a couple of questions. One of the things that Parliament mandated you to do was to deal with the issue of no-shows. I wonder if you have gotten that far in your thinking. If so, where is that leading you? What are your thoughts on that?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I realize that there was no mandate to compel. There was a bit of a disconnect in terms of the process between this committee, the government and Parliament. All of that is history now, but certainly from the committee's point of view, there was a desire that you do something to show this, including things like empty seats.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. We don't want to give anyone an out. As you know, for a lot of us, the impetus for wanting this done was what happened the last time. Part of that was the all but refusal to find an agreement. If we don't get people there, we fail at the main objective. We can't have the kind of fulsome debate you were talking about if we don't have all the players.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Where are we expecting these threats?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Don't you need to know that, though?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I see. I assume that there is a plan in place to be evaluating this question throughout the election. Then, I would also be interested in what your plans are for everybody to regroup after the election, in terms of security, to see what worked, what didn't work and how well we defended our system.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay. Are you in consultation if not outright coordination with other allies that are facing the same problem?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —the Five Eyes?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. With your permission I'd like to move from inquisition back to the matter at hand. My question to you, first of all, would be, what was the biggest challenge of implementing Bill C-76? What was the toughest part of it?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have some security questions, and I know Mr. Graham has too. I can do them now, but I have a funny feeling that they still might be better done in camera, because I want to drill down a bit. I'll leave that to the end, however, and we can make a determination. As much as the government gets credit for Bill C-76 and unravelling some of the ugliness that was in the “unfair elections act” that the previous government enacted, the way they did it was ham-fisted and borderline incompetent.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, it is just unbelievable that we've gone through two regimes that changed the law and both have said no to parties having to provide receipts. How the heck do you get subsidy dollar one from the Canadian government without a receipt if they ask for it? This has to be the only example, and it's such an abomination in our democracy; it truly is.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have to say that, initially, I was attracted because of the non-partisan nature of the House. You wouldn't necessarily be giving the government more time, because that creates a political problem. You should have seen what we went through here around whether or not we would continue to sit on Fridays, and the fight's not over.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right. Very good. Thank you very much for the fulsome answers.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Madam Clerk, for your time. This is very informative and very helpful. Thank you again. John and I were wondering whether any of your states have adopted the parallel chamber process.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. I have a couple of quick questions before I delve into a little more minutiae. Are they televised?