moved for leave to introduce Bill C-280, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act (registration of political parties).
Mr. Speaker, this bill, when passed, will correct an appalling anomaly in the elections act which permits the government to confiscate the assets of a party incapable of running 50 candidates in a general election.
The amendment to the act was passed by the Mulroney government just prior to the 1993 election. It was aimed at Reform but it caught the Communist Party and it had its assets seized and sold by this government.
We may not support the Communist Party but this is an anti-democratic law and has to be fixed. My private member's bill would remove that terrible part of the elections act.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)