Evidence of meeting #13 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 recording is available from Parliament.
Associate Professor, As an Individual
I'm sorry.
Can you repeat your question?
Conservative
Grant Jackson Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
I apologize.
Right now, Canada has a law in place that requires Canadians living abroad to vote in the last constituency in which they lived. However, we're going to have many generations of Canadians who have never lived in Canada, who have always lived abroad, so they can't register in a Canadian constituency.
Where should their votes be counted if we don't have the foreign constituencies created by the time we have another election?
Associate Professor, As an Individual
In the case of France, even if a person has never lived in France, they can vote if they have French citizenship.
That person must be attached to a commune, a municipality, which may be the municipality of their last residence, the one where their ancestors, such as a father, grandfather or great-grandfather, were registered. That commune can also be the one where a fourth-degree relative, such as a nephew, cousin or uncle, was registered. It might even be possible if the person's spouse is on the voter list.
It is a given that, even if you have never lived in France, you can definitely take part in national and local elections.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
Thank you so much.
We'll move on to Mr. Wilkinson for five minutes, please.
Liberal
Jonathan Wilkinson Liberal North Vancouver—Capilano, BC
Thank you all for being here.
Maybe I'll let each of you take a crack at this.
One of the reasons we're studying this is effectively the very low rate of participation of Canadians outside of the country, which is less than 2% of those who are actually eligible to vote. There are other countries that clearly are doing better. France, I think, is about 35 times better than Canada. The United States is eight times better than Canada, and there are others.
There are two separate pieces. One is obstacles to voting and whether there are ways to make it more accessible. The other is the engagement of the community. Let me take first the obstacles. There's a lot of interesting feedback in terms of different options. There's the idea of actually taking a fairly restrictive Canadian system right now in terms of mail and having the kit made available online and making it much more widely available to vote at consulates and embassies. There's the proxy voting—which is really interesting—all the way to electronic voting.
If you were advising us about the best way for us to actually simplify the process to get higher levels of turnout, what would that be?
We could start with Professor James, and then go to Professor Pearce Laanela, Professor Fraysse and finally Professor Garnett.
Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, As an Individual
That probably gives me about a minute and a half.
There are multiple factors that shape voter turnout. Simplified voter registration procedures are important. The literature says that flexible deadlines are important.
In that case, I think that looking seriously at proxy voting, but also electronic voting, in the ways that we've heard about earlier from other witnesses, is really important.
The other thing that's been mentioned is overseas constituencies. Generally speaking, if you have an overseas constituency, then turnout is probably going to be higher. It gives a focus or a container, if you like, for overseas voters to go into. It gives a meaningful contest. You have candidates who actually compete for that. Therefore, there is an incentive for them to reach out and engage.
Some things are going to be very difficult to change. They might be related to people's connections with the country. If someone has recently left Canada, it's very likely that they'll want to vote. If they have not lived there for a long time, it's less likely that they'll want to vote.
The other thing is the role of important focusing events. In the U.K., for example, we had a lot more interest in overseas voting when we had the Brexit referendum. The registrations increased. When there are important international focusing events, I think the way that politicians can campaign is important.
Of all these things that the committee can probably recommend, I would say that a single overseas constituency could make a big difference, and looking at proxy voting and Internet voting.
Head of Electoral Processes, International IDEA
Great. I'll go next.
I think that those ways of getting the vote home more quickly may not help with the turnout and engagement, because I think a lot of Canadians don't know that they can be on the international register or how to get on it. For that, you really need to figure out where your Canadians are. That's not so easy, because Canadians don't tend to be like a distinct community or a distinct subculture as other communities may be. They're often not a distinct language group, and so forth.
I'd say, work very closely with your diplomatic communities, because they know approximately the patterns of where people are. They know when Canadians interface with the government to renew their passports or to renew various documents. That is when—not just at election time—you want to make sure that there's a flyer or a folder that goes in there that asks, “Are you on the register?” With every single interface, that folder, flyer or banner should be there.
I'm sure a lot of Canadians overseas listen to CBC radio or follow Canadian sports and so forth. I was even wondering if there's a possibility of doing a public...a banner on top or something that says, “If you're overseas, do you know that you can be on the international register?”
I also think it's fine that voter turnout isn't as high as it is domestically. That would be normal, as Toby described.
Associate Professor, As an Individual
Thank you for your question.
Let me say two things about France.
First of all, I don't know if this is the case in Canada, but there is a culture of the francophonie, French schools, a francophone life at consulates and embassies. It allows expatriates to participate in French life while abroad. So that must certainly be considered part of political and democratic engagement.
Second, everything is in place for French expats. They can vote directly at the embassy. If they can't get there, they can also vote by proxy through the embassy. They can also vote by mail. For members, electronic voting has been available since 2012. During the recent parliamentary elections in 2024, electronic voting provided for a big boost in the electoral participation of French expats.
November 20th, 2025 / 11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Chris Bittle
She didn't, but you are well over.
We have lots of time, and we can definitely come back to it.
Because this is one giant meeting, I think it's fair to—and I'm just going to do it anyway, at my discretion—offer Madame Normandin six minutes for the panel. Then we'll have a five-minute suspension after the six minutes.
Go ahead, Ms. Normandin.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
You're very generous, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being with us. I imagine my colleague has already acknowledged them. I'll take the liberty of doing so as well. I hope my questions won't be redundant. I did however listen to the exchanges during the previous round of questions.
Ms. Fraysse, I'd like to continue the discussion on the hybrid model. You seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of voters being attached to a commune. From what I understand, French expats really have a lot of leeway when it comes to choosing the commune where they vote.
Could your discomfort relate, for example, to the fact that it is possible to select a jurisdiction, meaning that people can choose the place where they want to vote, especially given that there is clearly a range of choices available?
Where a person can vote is not limited to their last address of residence. It can ultimately be located anywhere that the person can exercise their right to vote.
Associate Professor, As an Individual
Thank you very much for the question.
Yes, I completely agree with what you're saying. We know that, in France, voting in a small or large commune does not carry the same weight. So I don't know whether, in practical terms, this is a case of choosing a jurisdiction, but the act allows it.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
When they have to choose between voting in a local commune or a geographic commune, do French voters have to register on the electoral list well in advance?
Can they wait until the last minute? On the eve of an election, it can be a very tight race.
Can you then, as a French expat, register at the last minute to go and vote? How does that work?
Associate Professor, As an Individual
No, they can't do that. Expats must follow the same rules as those established for traditional domestic voters. Generally, they have to register a few months in advance. For the June election, for example, people typically have to register in March.
On the other hand, for those voting abroad, at embassies, there is more latitude in their final choice if a person is registered on the lists, whether they vote by mail or electronically, for example.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much.
I want to follow up on that.
When the model was changed in 2008 and the geographic communes were created, do you know why people were still able to vote in the riding where they were born rather than in their local commune?
What were the reasons that led to the creation of this model, knowing that expats would be given the opportunity to be represented by an elected official who would be responsible for the geographic files of their region of residence?
Associate Professor, As an Individual
I would say that it was not discussed at all. Before 2008, at the national level, French expats were represented in the Senate, our upper chamber, but not in the National Assembly.
So there has been an alignment. During this alignment, there was no discussion of the fact that French expats could already vote as part of their French commune.
Those French people would typically have said that they were considered half-citizens, that they were poorly represented, that they had a weak representation, because they didn't have their own members.
That's what was considered, completely ignoring the fact that they could already vote in the past.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Is there any discussion currently about revisiting the decision that was made and not allowing voters to vote in their own local commune?
I imagine that would probably be met with indignation.
Associate Professor, As an Individual
Yes, indeed. There is very little discussion of that in general. In France, greater emphasis is being placed on French expats and French influence around the world, so everything is pointing to giving French expats more importance, and not the other way around at all.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you very much.
I would like to continue on this topic.
As I understand it, one of the cornerstones of the 2008 reform was that, for a person to be considered a full citizen, the person had to have a representative, a member of Parliament. As you said, though, there was also the idea of affording French expats specific representation.
How did the argument take hold that they were not really citizens even though they had the right to vote?
If I understand correctly, for many French people, citizenship is not related to the right to vote, but rather to the right to have an elected member who represents them specifically.
Is that correct?