Evidence of meeting #81 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was election.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I suspect that there are larger concentrations in certain countries. Certainly the United States comes to mind, and probably the U.K. There are probably a few other countries in Europe—maybe France. That's an analysis that could be done. I don't have it.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
Okay. The other part of my question would be, do you have a sense of where those 6,000 votes went? Did they basically go across the country in some sort of an equal pattern?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It's very much distributed. I am not aware of any significant concentration in any riding. There are always a few in pretty much all ridings. It's fairly distributed.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
When we're talking about 6,000 and 308 ridings, it would be interesting to see how they are distributed. I'm wondering if it's possible for you to give us at some future time the location of where those 6,000—or 10,000, actually, who would have the right to vote—are distributed.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It's probably doable. I'm just thinking that with the official voting results candidates probably have a good sense of how many Canadians from abroad voted in their riding, but I can try to do an analysis.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
You could probably find it if you were to look at the official voting results. How many voted by—
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
You would get the others, too, for all groups using special voting rules.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
Okay, but I'm thinking your office would have that, if you would.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
That's the end of your time.
We'll go on to Mr. Lukiwski for four minutes, please.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Thank you very much.
I have one question to ask, but before I do, I think I am going to follow up a little bit on what Mr. Reid was saying.
I believe he was trying to get at a situation that might be best summarized as this. Currently, as I understand the rules, someone could have lived in Canada for 10 years and then have moved back to Lebanon, to use Lebanon as an example. He has never returned to Canada but has maintained his Canadian citizenship. He has fathered many children, who are of voting age. They would become Canadian citizens, but they have never set foot in Canada. They would be allowed to vote under the current rules. Is that correct?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
No. You must have resided in Canada at some point. Even with the Frank decision, that's my understanding. You must have resided in Canada at some point.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
“Residing” means more than just visiting.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Okay. I'll go back to my initial question, which you answered. Once they have chosen or been allocated a riding in which they cast their ballots, it's frozen. They can never change. What happens if someone comes back to Canada, changes residency, and then goes abroad again?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
They would have to go online and register again, because they would have been struck from the National Register of Electors when they moved out of Canada.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
How long would they have to be in Canada to be considered a resident?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
The act doesn't provide a time test, a substantive test of whether they're actually a resident in Canada: is that their ordinary place of residence?
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
That's interesting, because then, theoretically, or hypothetically I suppose, someone could come back to Canada for a visit for a month.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
That's not ordinary residence. On that point, I would argue, and we would decline to register them, saying—
Conservative
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Is that the place where you normally go when you have visited all the other places you wanted to visit? Is that the place to where you return?