Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for being here. You provided us with some very interesting information. I'd like to tell you about a particular experience I had. I've run in five elections, and in the last two, candidates from my riding who turned up at the steps of churches following a religious celebration or mass, were literally chased off the premises. Churchgoers found it highly disrespectful when candidates bothered them and wanted to shake their hand to get their vote following a religious celebration, Sunday mass, or a period of prayer. People were annoyed and found it disrespectful, so much so that the priests, reverends, or parish heads called for a ban on this type of practice because it was terribly disruptive to worshippers. My riding is both urban and rural, and it seems to be the case in every parish.
I don't agree with Mr. Lukiwski who said that polling day is a family activity. It's already a tight squeeze in most polling stations and the lineups are quite long, so much so that people often have to sit down while they wait to vote. I have trouble imagining families with babies cradled in their arms waiting to exercise their right to vote. Indeed, as far as I'm concerned, Sunday is a family day and a day where people take part in other activities aside from going to vote.
People already have enough time to cast their ballot. Currently, in Canada, you have 36 days to vote. You can go and vote anytime in the returning officer's office, you can vote by mail, there are advanced polls, and then there is also election day. Why add yet another day on Sunday? What's more, there are all of the election workers my colleague referred to who are there two days in a row and who only have one day, Sunday, left to go about their religious and family activities. This would be taken away from them. And I also think we might end up losing volunteers. You're talking about three long days of polling. I agree with you in that civic and religious activities must be separated.