I think this is perhaps a moment of rare agreement between myself and my friends from the Conservative Party. I could short-circuit my entire presentation by saying I essentially agree--although without prejudice to reviewing my friend's amendment--with everything they've just said.
I do have prepared remarks. With your indulgence and that of the committee, I'm going to try my best to get through it, and if you deem that I'm going on too long, then I'm in your hands, Mr. Chair. But I can undertake to provide the entirety of these remarks to the committee.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, committee members,
thank you for this opportunity to speak on observations our party has on the state of the Canada Elections Act and its administration.
As the national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, I had the opportunity to hear comments from all corners of Canada, both favourable and critical, reflecting the experiences of Liberals on the campaign trail and their dealings with Elections Canada before, during, and after the election period.
Despite the fact that these remarks will necessarily put the emphasis on the points on which we've noted deficiencies in the electoral process, I must take a few moments to mention that, in general, this way of doing things in fact works.
Thousands of Canadians who work for Elections Canada, whether it be for a few months or even a single day, and also all those who work for the organization on a full-time basis are people who render an invaluable service to the entire Canadian population with regard to the preservation and maintenance of our democracy. Most of them do a remarkable job. The country owes them all a big thank you.
With the greatest of respect to the best efforts of so many, there are nevertheless failings in the system, some profound, some merely frustrating. I would like, in the short time available to me, to highlight just a few of these and to encourage you to consider the need for amendments to the Canada Elections Act.
The first topic I would like to discuss is the registration process. Perhaps our single greatest concern, if not a source of outright alarm, is the registration process. As several of this committee's members know from their own experiences, the provision of a valid residential address is not something that Elections Canada seems to put much weight on. We have experienced voters registered as living in supermarkets, U-Store-It facilities, business office towers, non-existent addresses, and a university bookstore.
The problem here is twofold. In our view, Elections Canada places little or no emphasis upon verifying or validating residential addresses contained in the register of electors. The Chief Electoral Officer often points out that lack of resources is never an issue for his office. With respect, the resources may well be there, but the will is not.
In one particular electoral district where problems of this nature were identified by us in extreme proportions, Trinity--Spadina, such concerns arising from the 2004 election went unaddressed in the 2006 election--