Thank you very much.
I was here at committee last autumn on this long ballot measure. I was glad to be included in that.
The long ballot effort is not an effort to enhance Canadian democracy. It's just an effort to gum up the works by people who have tried to reform the electoral system and have lost on every occasion they've tried. That's just the political reality of it. I'm glad you're trying to address it, because I think it is a nuisance and it's burdensome to elections.
On those two particular measures, limiting it to a single agent for single candidates is a very advisable thing. People may have a hard time convincing 200 other people to get involved in their shenanigans in trying to create long ballots.
On the issue of an individual signing multiple candidacies, I think there's potential for it to be a problem only because we all know people in our communities who are local notables and will help anyone out. You can imagine them being approached one month to sign a person's nomination. They sign it for the person to be on the ballot, and then they sign another one a few weeks later, and they forget they've done it. I would be concerned about the potential for that to be...not restrictive in creating candidates, but to create problems after an election that further gum up the works.
To the degree that the parties here can recognize that these long ballots are not helpful to voters in finding sincere candidates on their ballots, I think it's highly advisable that you do something.