Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 2nd, 2015

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Okay.

The other issue that was brought up by our two gentlemen in British Columbia was the one voucher per voter rule. The way you outlined it is that it becomes problematic once they're unable to establish their last place of residency. This is just one more impediment on top of an impediment that was not there before. Is that correct?

I'll let both of you answer that, Mr. Paterson and Mr. Biggar.

[Josh Paterson]

That's right.

Of course, this is assuming that they are unable to satisfy Elections Canada, through identification, as to their residency. We can imagine so many problematic scenarios. There are maybe two parents living in the home riding and three kids who are all working abroad. Which one of them doesn't get to vote if, for whatever reason, they don't have proof with their name on it? They wouldn't have had a bill going to their parents' address.

You can just imagine multiplying scenarios where the one voucher per voter rule doesn't make sense. That applies in resident voting just as it does in non-resident voting.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Thank you, gentlemen.

I want to turn to Mr. Milner.

You said that we cannot find other countries that are not as restrictive—

[Prof. Henry Milner]

I didn't quite say that; I said there are very few.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

There are very few. Okay.

Well, then, of the few that are restrictive...for instance, you said that in Australia there's a six-year thing but that they can re-register.

[Prof. Henry Milner]

For a year, and then I assume for another year and so on.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Would you say that most of them require a permanent list to be created?

[Prof. Henry Milner]

I actually tried to get that data and I couldn't.

For example, Sweden, which I've written about, has no particular list. You're assumed to still be eligible to vote based on the previous list, even if you're not in the country, and you can get the necessary material electronically.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

You don't have to re-register when the writ is dropped.

[Prof. Henry Milner]

Not at all. I think there's a 10-year period in Sweden. If you've been away for 10 years, then you have to re-register.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Can you do that at any time?

[Prof. Henry Milner]

I assume so. Do you mean that if they wait beyond the 10 years, it would no longer be possible? That I don't know. But in the case of Sweden you can vote at the embassy, you can vote by mail. You can't use proxy voting but you can vote in Swedish local elections if you're away, based on the locality that you live in, so they've gone out of their way. I can't imagine they would refuse somebody who let it expire after 10 years. It's just simply that you're supposed to renew your communication with the electoral authorities.

There are other countries that, I think, equally go out of their way to make it easy.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

You said that, in general, countries try to encourage voting. In your study and analysis—

[Prof. Henry Milner]

Yes, I think that's overall. If there have been changes in the past 10 years or so, they have been in the direction of making access easier rather than the reverse.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

In your opinion, does Bill C-50 go in an opposite direction? It's certainly different.

[Prof. Henry Milner]

I haven't understood why those particular aspects of making it harder are being introduced. Unless somebody gives me a good answer, I'd have to say that this seems to go in the opposite direction, yes.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Oh, I'm out of time, am I?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Alexandrine Latendresse]

You have five seconds left.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Okay, Mr. Milner, Mr. Paterson, Mr. Biggar, thank you for your time.

[Prof. Henry Milner]

Can I just add one thing that I should have answered to Mr. Reid when he asked?

This is not a very large group, but it is a real group. This has been studied by academic experts, and what they say is that there is a group of young people who, if they do not vote in that crucial period, do not develop the habit of voting for the rest of their lives. I can imagine young people who might have voted, although not particularly motivated to vote, but who might have voted when they were away at university but found it more difficult and just got out of the habit. It's not that many, but it is a real number that we know. If they didn't vote between the ages of 18 and 22, or whatever the research is, some of those people will never vote, and that is something to keep in mind.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Alexandrine Latendresse]

Thank you, Professor Milner.

Mr. Richards, you now have the floor for four minutes.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

Thank you.

Professor Milner, I'll direct some questions at you to begin with.

Mr. Reid just mentioned this briefly when he was having his conversation with you earlier ,and it was about the issue that all three of you have indicated you see as your main concern, which is this idea that people should be able to register prior to the election period rather than simply within it.

Now, I can certainly understand how in the context of a fixed election date that potentially could be an option. However, obviously knowing our system, there is all kind of potential for an election to fall outside the period of a fixed election date. There could be a minority parliament. There could be the defeat of a government on a non-confidence motion. There are all kinds of reasons that an unexpected election could happen at any time. Therefore, under those types of scenarios, you would have voters in one election as compared to another election potentially being treated differently if we were to have a system where they were able to register prior to an election, because obviously if there was an unexpected election on a defeat of a government, they would only of course then be able to register within the period of the election.

People would be treated differently in two different types of elections. Would you have any concern about the potential unfairness in that type of system, of people being treated differently in one election as compared to another?

[Prof. Henry Milner]

If it were some people being treated differently from other people, I would have concern, but here everyone is being treated the same. They're just being treated differently under different circumstances.

In a sense, a fixed-date election is not the same as an election called prematurely—that's the word I think I would use—in terms of the kind of campaign that people are going to be seeing, and so on. That's the nature of our system now. My own feeling is, and this is another discussion, we could tighten the rules so that even under minority systems we would have fixed election dates. That's what they have in Norway, and in other countries they make it very difficult to have premature elections.

But that's not going to be changed, so I don't think there's any injustice involved. I think it's built into the nature of the system.

We don't have to have a new list for every election. It is possible to say that if people's circumstances have not changed since the previous election, they would then be eligible to vote. I'm not a legislator so I would leave it to you to figure out how to do it, but I don't see any reason that it cannot be that way, even for people outside of the country.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

In that scenario then, if you're talking about having what would essentially be a permanent list, if their circumstances haven't changed, how would we be aware whether their circumstances have changed or not, unless they were registering at some point?

[Prof. Henry Milner]

The law would require it.