Thank you.
We believe that what the bill sets out to do is commendable, but that the ways proposed of achieving this are totally inappropriate. It has already been observed in the past that more advanced polling does not necessarily lead to an overall increase in voter turnout. What is observed is merely a transfer effect. A second polling day will keep voter turnout stable. One may argue, in other words, that voted turnout will remain the same, except that it will be spread over two days.
What do the studies tell us? Studies conducted by Elections Canada in no way point to the number of polling days as the issue at hand. The two main reasons for poor voter turnout—and these are the reasons most frequently given—are, firstly, voter perception that politicians are dishonest and corrupt, and secondly, the belief that voting is a pointless exercise.
Now then, regarding the belief that voting is pointless, fortunately the Bloc Québécois has been on the scene since 1993. This is given hundreds of thousands of Quebeckers an opportunity to freely express their conviction that Quebec must become a sovereign nation.
When it comes to people abstaining from voting, there are two reasons that come into play. Once again, the various scandals that have occurred, whether it be the sponsorship scandal, Airbus, or some other incident, have had a considerable impact in enumeration areas where traditionally voters have supported federalism. In the last two elections there's been a participation rate of between 40% and 45% which confirms the reasons outlined in the various studies conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer. The other tactic employed by voters to abstain is to spoil their ballot. Of the 118,000 invalid ballots cast in 2004, 58% were cast in Quebec. So that's also something to consider. I'll come back to more concrete proposals for increasing voter turnout later.