Thank you, Mr. Chair. I very much appreciate it.
I appreciate all of you coming here today. Thank you.
I'm wondering if we could go back. This is not the first change that has been proposed to Canada's vouching laws. The Canada Elections Act as it now exists was amended by Parliament, if my memory serves—that's what I was running back and forth to talk to the analysts about—in 2006 or 2007, possibly 2008, but in time for the 2008 election. We were able to confirm that. So the 40th general election, which led to the Parliament prior to this one, as well as the 2011 election, were conducted under rules in which vouching was more restricted than it had previously been.
I'm sure you already know it but just so everybody here has context, the restrictions that were placed into section 143 of the Canada Elections Act specified: that no elector shall vouch for more than one other person; that an elector who has been vouched for cannot vouch for somebody else—so-called serial vouching—and finally, that you have to live in the same polling district as the person for whom you're vouching. Those restrictions were put in place.
First, do each of you support the changes that were made then? Second, if you had the opportunity, a free hand in this matter, would you reinstate the status quo ante prior to the set of changes to section 143 that took place two Parliaments ago?