Good morning Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. First of all, on behalf of myself, the Conservative Party, and I think certainly all the other parties represented, I want to thank the committee, and particularly you, Mr. Chair, for allowing us the opportunity to come before your committee.
The subject matter this morning, of course, is in particular the extent to which Bill C-2 deals with the electoral process and the proposed amendments in Bill C-2 to the Canada Elections Act. As both a student of this process for many years and now a practitioner, I must say this is not a subject that the average Canadian gets really excited about. Even I'm not too excited at 8:10 in the morning, Mr. Chair, but I'll do my best.
The Federal Accountability Act, Bill C-2, basically does two things, I think--it has some minor amendments, but there are two major changes in the electoral law--and I want to say that I think both of those major changes are all movements towards increased accountability and transparency in this essential electoral process in Canada. The two of those, of course, are some changes on the rules considering political party financing and the other change is in the administration of the conduct of the election itself.
On political party financing, as you know, basically what the bill does is create a situation where the maximum contribution that any individual Canadian can give to the national party is $1,000 and then another $1,000 to the local emanations of the party. It seems to us, from the Conservative Party's point of view, that this is an excellent further reform in our electoral financing system. What the $1,000 limit does in both cases, in our view, is it certainly puts to rest any sense now that there is financial influence in this electoral process, either in substance or in appearance. I don't think anybody can seriously argue that an individual giving $1,000 to a political party or a candidate is going to exercise some sort of undue influence. So I think the $1,000 threshold is a good one because it basically ends any argument of substance or appearance. And in an electoral process, appearance is also very important, as honourable members know.
The other change, of course, and I think it's long overdue--I think it is a holdover from, if I may say, Sir John A. Macdonald's era--is that in a federal general election, or a byelection for that matter, the senior state official responsible for the administration, the conduct, of the election within an electoral district is a cabinet appointee. I'm talking, of course, about the returning officers. That's the other really good reform in this bill, Mr. Chair, that we're finally ending this vestige of even any sense of patronage power in the executive in the appointment of returning officers, giving that power to the chief electoral officer, where I think it should be. So I think that is an important reform, and it's certainly one that our party welcomes.
Those are my basic comments, Mr. Chair.