Evidence of meeting #12 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was voters.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you to the witnesses for being here.
I'm pleased to be with you to discuss this topic, which I find quite fascinating. From what I understand, we need to adapt to this Supreme Court ruling. Therefore, 3 million to 4 million expatriate Canadians may be voting in elections. I understand the imperative to foster voting rights.
Ms. Kovacikova, do you see any risks in opening this up?
Assistant Professor of Political Science, As an Individual
It is a really good question, because risks exist in any type of voting. Just like in Canada with voters who reside in Canada, some will vote and some will decide not to vote, especially people living abroad, as there are very different circumstances.
For example, if you are a student or are residing abroad temporarily, you might be much more connected to the political process and be much more willing to cast a ballot. Obviously, some Canadians have decided to permanently leave Canada, and they are perhaps not thinking of coming back and have started to live somewhere else. For them, voting might not be top of mind because they might be more engaged in their new country.
I think a portion of the population living abroad will always simply decide not to vote. I would say there is a very good chance that a big chunk of the population living abroad will simply decide not to vote, and that is their right.
In terms of risks, this is something that all modern democracies have to deal with. Is there a risk, for example, if we include being able to print a ballot instead of having it mailed? Are there some electronic risks? I am sure these kinds of things can be mediated through the process.
I don't necessarily see any sort of risk in trying to switch the location of where to vote, because it is tied to your last riding. Things like that are already prevented by the system itself, so I don't foresee any major risks, but we need to acknowledge that not every Canadian abroad will choose to vote.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Therefore, what you're saying is that people living abroad usually vote in the riding their last place of residence was in. However, isn't it a bit vague to do things that way? Does anything get verified? At the end of the day, isn't that an opportunity to shop around and choose whatever riding one wants?
Assistant Professor of Political Science, As an Individual
I'm sure Dr. Turnbull also has some statistics on this, but I believe your vote is determined based on your last residency, so you have to prove to Elections Canada where you last resided.
The real question and the problem here is with Canadians who have been away from Canada for a very long time. Obviously, there are those like me who have been abroad for a short amount of time. I know exactly what my riding is and I know exactly where I'm supposed to put my address. It's really about the portion of external voters who have been abroad for 20 or so years and are no longer really connected to their riding.
Again, overall, what is the actual percentage of outside voters who fall into that category? The truth is that we don't really have data on that. We don't know how many of those voters are the voters who have been abroad for too long.
To properly answer that question, first we should have a bit more data. Certainly, I wouldn't think it applies to everyone. I think it applies to a very specific subsection of those voters.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Ms. Turnbull, are you convinced that the last place of residence should determine the riding allocated to voters voting abroad? Shouldn't other solutions be found? For example, could we instead use the place of birth of voters who have been living abroad for a very long time? What mechanisms could be put in place to stop a diaspora organization, for example, from targeting a too-close-to-call riding and concentrating votes there for partisan purposes?
Professor, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
Of course it's possible that someone will put an address that may have been the second-last or third-last place they lived, or their parents' house. Maybe they feel more of an affinity for a riding than they do for the last place they lived. We could do something like have people swear an oath to say this is the proof of the last place they lived. They would be legally responsible for the information they've given you, and if they're found to have violated that, they'd be in a whole lot of trouble. We could do something like that.
I don't think you can completely eliminate the possibility. I don't think you can completely eliminate the risk that some people could possibly have a reason to put down something that isn't their last place of residence. All we can do is encourage honesty, as we do every other time we ask Canadians to be honest about things, whether on their tax forms or on their passport application—things like that.
The reality of it is we're not going to put every person who lives abroad through top secret level clearance where we make sure we know exactly where they lived last. There has to be some trust in this or else we're not going to be able to do it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Thank you so much.
I'm generally pretty generous with the time. I'm adding another minute to each questioner in this round just to get us closer to one hour, rather than trying to mess around with the third round.
Mr. Jackson, you have six minutes, please.
Conservative
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Thanks, Chair.
Thank you to both professionals for being here with us today.
I want to thank you, Dr. Turnbull, for being here again.
It's nice to meet you, Professor Kovacikova.
I have a question that I'll address to both of you. It builds on the topic raised by my colleague from the Bloc. As you probably know, the House of Commons recently passed an immigration bill to deal with the Supreme Court ruling that says the first-generation limit is not in effect for Canadians born abroad or the children of Canadians born abroad.
If the Canada Elections Act requires voters voting abroad to vote at their last place of residence, where does the grandchild or great-grandchild of a Canadian born abroad vote? They have likely never been at the residence listed by their grandparent or great-grandparent, who's the last person in their family to have lived in this country. How do we determine where those folks vote? They're Canadian citizens now by act of Parliament. It's going to pass the Senate, I'm sure, and will be in effect, so how do we determine in what constituency multi-generational, foreign-born Canadians vote?
That's for Dr. Turnbull first, and then Professor Kovacikova.
Professor, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
Going back to an earlier exchange, I can remember this question coming up when the court case was going on and the government was considering this. There was a back-and-forth about where Canadians abroad would cast their ballots. I believe that when the decision was made that they would cast the ballot in the last riding they lived in, it had the advantage of being clear. You're not making a judgment. You're not asking people to say what their favourite riding is and where they feel the closest affinity. You're not doing that. You're asking what the fact-based...to eliminate any possibility of people trying to make judgments about where they ought to be voting and there being inconsistencies in the application of the accessibility to the ballot.
If we've made the choice to decide where people will vote, it puts us in a difficult spot for a Canadian citizen who has never lived in a riding in Canada.
I would love to give you a clear answer to this, but I think we're seeing a limitation in the value we chose to emphasize, which is clarity in the attachment to the last riding. You might have lived there for two weeks and spent your whole life somewhere else. I am a Cape Bretoner at heart. I will be forever, but if I moved away, I'd have to vote in Ottawa. I'd have to vote in this riding.
I think there is a policy gap. Maybe that is the right word. It's not easy to take that principle and apply it to someone who is a Canadian citizen but who has never lived here.
November 18th, 2025 / 11:30 a.m.
Assistant Professor of Political Science, As an Individual
This is a great question, and I agree with Dr. Turnbull that there isn't an easy explanation.
Starting to think creatively about it, this is where a potential conversation might come in about MPs who are designated for overseas voters, for example. I know that was part of the debate during the last committee meeting with the previous two witnesses.
I think it will require outside-the-box thinking, because I don't think it makes much sense to tie people to the riding in which their family used to reside a generation ago. I think there will need to be a different approach.
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
I'm glad you mentioned the committee testimony from the last meeting, because I'm also curious about our dear friends down the street. By that I mean that the conversation here is about equal representation for Canadians living abroad. We're talking a lot about the House of Commons and elections, but nobody has mentioned the Senate. I'm fascinated to know what equal representation in the upper chamber may look like as part of this conversation.
Are we asking the government to appoint senators to represent Canadians who live abroad, or are we worried only about equal representation in the House of Commons for Canadians who live abroad?
Anybody can take that.
Professor, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
I'll jump in.
This is a fascinating angle and a fascinating lens to the discussion because it's about how we apply the values and principles that we believe and know are important and operationalize them. It's much harder in a lot of ways to think about how you're going to put this into practice.
Even for representation in the House of Commons, if we started to think along the lines of what if Canadians living abroad had their own representative, how would that work in terms of the constitutional formula around representation by population and ensuring that there is a balance in a riding? We protect communities of interest. We have a geographical sense of how big we want a riding to be and how many people we want to have in that riding.
An MP for Canadians living abroad would be a totally different kettle of fish. I'm not sure how we would make that work constitutionally anyway. I'm not saying we shouldn't. I'm just saying that we don't have a formula for that right now at all. I find that sometimes in these conversations there is a tendency to say that we'll have a senator for that because it might be easier, but it wouldn't be because the allocation of senators is by province and by region.
This would be an extremely complex thing to do, and it would definitely have constitutional implications.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
We can continue that conversation later.
Next is Mr. Louis for six minutes, please.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Through you, I want to thank both of the witnesses for being here.
We heard today and in the past that over four million Canadians are living outside of Canada, which is about 11% of our population. Many of these citizens remain deeply connected to Canada. That's what we're hearing. They represent our values internationally, and now they have the right to vote in federal elections, yet what we're hearing is that voter turnout among Canadians abroad remains low. It's a fraction of the potential electorate, which is why I'm happy to have this study to address that gap.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk about these practical solutions, whether we're talking about modernizing voting methods, improving outreach or reducing the administrative barriers. Those are all things that we've heard ensure that every Canadian, no matter where they live, can fully participate in democracy.
I'll start with you, Dr. Turnbull.
We're hearing about low voter turnout. I'm trying to think if this is by, let's say, choice or lack of information. I feel like I have it down to three categories: people who choose to not vote, people who don't have the proper information, and then people not being able to vote. Is that a fair assessment?
Would you be able to, in your best estimate, say what percentage of people just don't want to vote, what percentage don't have information on how to vote, and what percentage are trying and can't vote? What would your best idea of the breakdown be?
Professor, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University, As an Individual
Honestly, you could probably apply the same categories to Canadians living in Canada. We don't have great voter turnout, and there have been years when we've been really worried about it.
I was trying to memorize your categories as you said them, so that I would be able to come up with some kind of intelligent answer to your question.
When we started studying this stuff really in depth back in 2000, when voter turnout was something like 62% in a federal election, those sorts of categories emerged. There are people who could not vote for administrative or whatever reasons operationally; it didn't happen, even though they wanted to. There were some people who didn't like any of the choices and didn't want to vote for anyone, and then there were people who were totally turned off the process and were just not interested in it at all. You had this kind of divide between those who purposely didn't vote, the ones who engaged but didn't like the choices, and then some who just didn't engage at all. The worry, I think, was more the ones who just self-selected out of the whole process.
There are lots of debates to be had about how big a problem the decline of voter turnout is. How bad is it? Should we really be worried about this? When we see provincial elections with fewer than 50% of eligible voters voting, to me, that's a major problem.
What do we expect in terms of a voter turnout for Canadians living abroad? I would anticipate that it would be less than the overall turnout for people living here, because you don't have the parties reaching out to you as much—I don't think, anyway. Do political parties have lists of Canadians living abroad? Are those lists as up to date as the ones you have for Canadians living here?
I'd be interested in the data on how many Canadians living abroad give donations to political parties. Do they show other ways of getting engaged in the process? I think it probably has a lot to do with how much you're staying informed about this sort of thing. It would be a very individual kind of calculation.
The answer to your question—a long one, I'm sorry—is that I don't know. I think it's really hard to know. For people living anywhere in the world who are Canadian citizens, they could have all kinds of reasons for not voting, but if we want to identify low voter turnout among Canadians living abroad as a problem and something we want to do something about, I think political parties would have to take a leadership role in getting really engaged in that.
Liberal
Tim Louis Liberal Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you.
Dr. Kovacikova, I'll ask you the same question, and maybe we could focus on whether there are ways of reaching out. I think in your report you talked about centralized information affecting the voter engagement, or a dedicated government website. What kinds of solutions do you think we can find to reach out to more of those voters?
Assistant Professor of Political Science, As an Individual
I fully agree with Dr. Turnbull's statement there. I think that for Canadians living abroad, one of the bigger issues among the three you've listed is the lack of information, and, frankly, even the idea of not being able to vote. Those are, I genuinely believe, relatively easy fixes.
Of course, every citizen is responsible for knowing information about the election. There is only so much, at one point, that the parties and the government can do. Ultimately, it is a citizen's responsibility. However, the access to information, I think, is something we can easily address. I believe that a website dedicated to the Canadian diaspora, which could link to information about elections, would simply streamline that information access.
Of course, you may argue that there is the Elections Canada website. That is absolutely true, and their website is great. However, I think the problem is that if you are a Canadian living abroad, you have to access so many different websites. There is nothing that is centralized, and I have actually heard from some people asking about provincial elections. Obviously, there are completely different rules for provincial and federal elections, but people might not know that.
It's up to individuals to research all of this. I can tell you that I was almost shocked. I do research for a living, and I spent a significant amount of time just poring through websites trying to figure out what the rules were.
Therefore, I think centralizing that information is a relatively easy step for the government to do and that it actually might have serious implications for information sharing for anybody abroad, and that added benefit—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
I'm going to have to cut you off there. We're over time, but you can continue that answer through other questions.
Monsieur Deschênes, you have three and a half minutes.
Bloc
Alexis Deschênes Bloc Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd first like to comment on the notion of an MP representing the diaspora. I know it's being done elsewhere, in other countries. That might be an idea to consider, because, ultimately, Canadians living abroad have more in common with each other than they do with other ridings in Canada.
Ms. Turnbull, as you were saying, I understand that this idea would raise constitutional issues, but a Constitution can sometimes be amended. That's something to think about.
That said, I was a bit traumatized by the election results in Terrebonne. Therefore, when people talk about special ballots, mail-in ballots, I shudder. We've talked a lot about mail-in ballots, but where are we with electronic voting? Do you know if this is being done in other countries, and if it's being done successfully? It seems to me that this could make everything easier and also resolve the issue of deadlines.
