Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister.
I want to ask a question about the flexibility of the dates themselves. You mentioned that you have provisions within the act so that even though the date has been set, if there were a cultural or religious event you would have the flexibility to move the date back a week, or something like that. I would anticipate that in the case of a cultural or religious conflict, moving the date of the fixed election back a week would avoid that conflict.
But what would happen—and I'm sure this will occur sooner rather than later—if there were another election in a provincial jurisdiction at the same time that the federal election was purported to be held? If you're running two elections at the same time--one provincial and one federal--that is bound to cause an awful lot of confusion and other logistical problems on a number of different levels. An example would be the ability for provincial and federal parties to gain advertising time on television if they were both vying for a limited amount of time.
I'm not asking what the bill says, but how would you see resolving that conflict when the eventuality does happen that you have two elections occurring in two different jurisdictions within a week or two?