Thanks, Chair.
I think the government made our point by virtue of the fact that even they had to go back to research a voter information card, retrieve it, look at it, and discover for themselves that it's on there. The fact is that none of us knew it was on there. We have all had them in our hands at one time or another, we've been talking about them for weeks, and none of us—none of our staff, nobody—knew it was already on there. Doesn't it make a lot of sense that we emphasize, by the passing of this motion, that it be a prominent message? That's the operative word, “prominent”. It's obviously not prominent.
This is harm reduction. We have run up the white flag concerning the voter information card and the way the government is neutralizing its effectiveness. We accept that; we can count. This is, as my colleague Mr. Scott has said, harm reduction.
My colleague also said that there is no downside. The only thing I might add is that from the government perspective there could be a downside, because if that message is displayed prominently, more people may become aware that the card is not ID. Therefore, there is a possibility or greater likelihood that they may take appropriate ID with them or grab their driver's licence and then be able to vote. That's what they don't want. Let's remember that the goal of the government in this exercise is to have fewer and fewer Canadians vote in the election. There is nothing they have done—with the exception of a couple of minor things, but on the significant factors, there is nothing they have done—that is meant to encourage, facilitate, and result in more Canadians voting. It is the opposite.
We see this in the United States. The Republicans are doing the same thing, especially around ID. People are following that issue. It has been challenged all the way to their Supreme Court. This is the same game. It has a little nicer, fuzzier, Canadian look to it, in that it may not be as stark, but make no mistake. The goal is the same: voter suppression—fewer people voting.
The downside for the government of putting this information in prominently is that more people may make sure when they walk out the door that they have some other piece of ID and actually will go to the voting station and will vote. The government is hoping.... This is where we didn't get a chance to get into the minutiae.
We talked about it a bit last night. At 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock at night, who is paying attention? That wasn't by accident, either. We talked about—
Pardon me?