Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Massicotte, thank you for traveling from one capital city to another to be with us this morning. It is much appreciated.
Mr. Massicotte, I have a completely technical question.
Assume that a general election is going to be held and that at the same time there is a referendum campaign. Someone stands as a candidate in the riding of Hull—Aylmer and has to limit their spending to amount x for the general campaign. Let's take the magic number of $100,000 in spending. At the same time, for the referendum, there are “yes” committees and “no” committees whose spending is also limited. We know that in a general election, the votes are counted per individual, per candidate, so there is competition among four or five or six or seven or eight candidates in the riding. For the referendum, it is the total votes that decide the winner, all the votes, not by riding, but for the entire jurisdiction affected by the referendum, whether it be federal, provincial or municipal. Right in the middle of the campaign, after public debates are held, we find ourselves in a situation where the Liberal candidate in Hull—Aylmer has to give their opinion on the referendum. The candidate says they are on the “yes” side or the “no” side. Assume they come out in favour of the “no” and campaign very actively both to get elected and for the “no” camp.
How are we going to distinguish between the candidate's personal campaign expenses and the expenses associated with one of the “yes” or “no” committees?
It has become so complicated for official agents to do the accounting for all this, to do it with extreme care. They have always done it, but they were going to have to file report after report. This is almost as bad as it is for this government's advertising signs.
How do you see this, Mr. Massicotte? I understand the broad principles, whether we can have an election at the same time as a referendum and whether we can change the rules. My answer to that is “yes”, but in practice, the real question is how to do it. There has to be two sets of books, two arenas. How do you see this?