Madam Speaker, I congratulate the member for Edmonton Southwest on Bill C-319. It is very obvious the debate has started members thinking about a very important issue.
I will approach it in a slightly different way. One of the issues it raises which is so important in our electoral process is appearances. I remember my own election campaign, which was a first experience for me since I had never run for election before, going to all candidates meetings in which there were the five major parties represented as well as another four candidates from very minor parties.
I do not reject the right of groups to try to run as national parties; I think it is fine. However, we have to draw the line somewhere. At these candidates meetings I found myself with the candidates from the other major parties speaking on issues, then having to waste my turn while these very minor parties spoke. In the case of the Natural Law Party-its members will forgive me for saying this-their platform which had to do with levitation did not really seem to fit seriously into the issues of the day.
While I agree they had the right to speak and the right to run as parties in the election, they did dilute the debate when we had our candidates meetings. They also diluted the debates when they appeared in the media. It has a responsibility to provide equal space to all candidates in an election. Perhaps the debate was not as good or as serious as it could have been. I agree we can do nothing about that.
On the other hand, I find myself supporting the member's bill on this point. If the public were to perceive, as it does, that anyone is eligible for compensation in running for election regardless of any limit in the number of votes they garner, it trivializes for them the exercise of candidacy, the exercise of running in a national election.
If the Natural Law Party wants to run for election, that is fine. If it wants to field candidates, that is fine. If it wants to use an election as a platform for promoting its particular agenda of metaphysicalism or whatever it is, that is fine too. It becomes a problem when the public perceives it is funding that type of group. This is the difficulty.
It is the same with all the other parties as well. If the public perceives a group is out promoting itself in a national election and does not have much support or has trivial support, and the government funds its election expenses because it can afford to put the money out there, then we erode our political system and the faith people have in the process.
I do support the principle of Bill C-319. We have to draw the line somewhere. Whether it should be 1 per cent, 2 per cent or 5 per cent, I cannot say. I actually rather like 2 per cent. Nine of the 14 parties that ran in the last election had less than 2 per cent of the vote.
It is interesting to run down the percentages of those nine. Beginning with the Abolitionist Party of Canada at 0.1 per cent, the next was 0.2 per cent, 0.1 per cent, 0.1 per cent, 0.2 per cent, 0.1 per cent, .01 per cent for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. It is not doing well. Then we go on to 0.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent, which was the National Party of Canada which I happen to agree had a message.
I agree with the intention of Bill C-319. The line has to be drawn somewhere. I do not know if this bill is the answer. As the member for Dartmouth and others mentioned, we should bring this to committee for further debate. In the final analysis I do not think it will affect regional parties. We will still be able to go forward with certain amendments to the bill which will make the process more efficient.