Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 16th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Again, I don't want to waste any more time than we have to. If the government is open to this, we'll take the time and fix that mistake. If not, let's vote it down and carry on.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Where are you guys?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Blink twice.

[A voice]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

We know you're alive. Now tell us what you're thinking.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Right now there has to be one elector present to open a box. Would the effect of this amendment be that two electors would have to be present, basically?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

If there is one candidate present, they need a second.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

No.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

That's if there's only one. You always need at least two people. You couldn't have just the NDP represented there. You'd need a second elector.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Yes, but you don't need to have two candidates.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

No, no.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

That's the option. You can begin the count with two candidates or two scrutineers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

So the question for the government is that if you're interested, we'll amend it. If you're not, we'll just vote.

Do you want to go to the vote?

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

You can defeat it as amended, if you want.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Let's not waste any more time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Okay. We will vote on CPC-69.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we'll go to CPC-70. This is still on clause 191.

[Stephanie Kusie]

John, would you like to speak to it?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

We'll withdraw this amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

You don't need to withdraw it. You just don't present it.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

We won't present it.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Okay.

Now we're on CPC-71. Just so people know the ramifications, the vote on this will also apply to CPC-74, which is on page 129, and CPC-79, which is on page 136, as they are linked by the concept of the number of votes.

Go ahead and present CPC-71, Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

For this one, I would seek some clarification from Elections Canada in terms of how they will go about tallying the polling divisions with a vote at any table model, which is kind of what we're talking about in this amendment here.

Could you provide some clarity?