Procedure and House Affairs committee  I very strongly believe that he should report to Parliament. Period.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm sorry, I thought that question was directed to Mr. Hawn.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's not only unfair to the candidate; it's unfair to contributors. As strange as it may seem, if I was running as an independent, and Mr. Hawn was running for a party, and you wanted to make a contribution to me, to my campaign, you can make it once in the five years leading up

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The thing that comes to my mind is that when I go on the Internet, I can see where Elections Canada brought to the attention of the government—to all governments since 1993—in two written reports that this is the most unfair aspect of Elections Canada, and it has not been address

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Actually, I wrote him twice and there was no reply. I didn't get a reply from him or an acknowledgement, which I think is kind of disrespectful, too. My letter was respectful. It outlined the issues. I did not get a response, with which I was disappointed. I wrote it on Februar

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It was a substantial surplus, as I recall, and he received it. In 2008 when I ran, it's kind of ironic that I won the election but I was the only one who had to forfeit my cash balance. Unfortunately it takes cash to run in an election. If I wanted to run again, I would not have

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm familiar with that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My only conclusion is that it was an oversight when the rules were drafted, because after the 1993 election and then after the 2000 election, Elections Canada made recommendations to change it. In effect in their paper that I got off the Internet, their recommendation after the 2

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's the most clear aspect of Elections Canada to me and it's the most unfair example. It may not be the most important example of unfairness, but it is the clearest example of unfairness that we allow individuals to run for office but some have a different set of rules than othe

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's great to be back.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much. First of all, I just want to say I was a member of this committee 10 years ago, and I have to say it wasn't nearly as exciting as it is now, or interesting. It was kind of dull, and nobody much watched it or kept track of it, but you've done a lot to raise t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe it is too, absolutely, it's the leadership of the chair—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I believe that Bill C-23, the fair elections act, is an opportunity to correct a very unfair aspect of Elections Canada rules that have been in place for many years. I'm referring to the set of rules that allow a candidate belonging to a recognized party to begin to raise money,