Evidence of meeting #83 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 petition.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zürich, As an Individual
I have one brother, and he is also living abroad actually. The rule is that only...how many people can be vouched for in a family?
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zürich, As an Individual
One person can vouch for one person. In my case, one of my parents could vouch for me and the other parent could vouch for my brother. Is that how it works?
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zürich, As an Individual
Yes, then it would be a problem for him because his current riding wouldn't.... Does it have to be a family member who vouches?
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zürich, As an Individual
Yes, that might be a problem for him actually.
NDP
Craig Scott NDP Toronto—Danforth, ON
Okay, thank you very much.
Currently in the bill, if you are in the situation where you have to find somebody to vouch for you and are not so lucky as to have parents where you last used to live, the bill doesn't allow you to do all of this in advance of the dropping of the writ. You have to do all of this after the writ drops too. In light of your experience with how long it takes just to vote in the current system....
Let's just say Elections Canada might make the system a little better, but it's still a concern. It's not just the voting side; it's getting the vouching in line before you can even vote. Would you say that not being able to find the person to vouch for your previous address and having to wait until the writ drops is also a problem from a delay perspective?
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zürich, As an Individual
Yes. I'm the type of person who likes to get everything all in order before the day and just send it right away. Hopefully I'd be able to get all the documents and send them in by day one and ask people ahead of time to vouch if we need someone to vouch, but it would be really hard because it did take a long time this time around. I do remember it also took several weeks at least to register from Israel, so I would find it very difficult to be able to send in my ballot on time in the current system if we only had—what is it?—40 days normally for an election, or 36 days or 37 days. That would be very difficult.
NDP
Craig Scott NDP Toronto—Danforth, ON
Thank you. I just wanted to benefit from the experience you've brought to bear. Thank you for looking at those two scenarios.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Alexandrine Latendresse
Thank you very much.
My thanks to the witnesses for making their presentations and answering the committee members' questions. It was very informative, and we hope it has made us a bit smarter.
Is there anything else for the will of the committee today?
Monsieur Christopherson.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I have a question. When is the minister coming in on Bill C-50?
Conservative
