Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Prince George--Peace River for raising this interesting subject and stimulating the debate we are having which has grown into quite a pluralistic kind of debate.
It quickly moved off the simple goal of the motion put forward by the hon. member and has broadened to a much larger debate about immigration generally, growing our country through immigration, citizenship, and now electoral reform because this is what the motion would entail. It would have Canadians revisit our electoral system to decide whether or not we would allow landed immigrants to vote.
I note from other speeches the point that there is precedence in some other countries that allows landed immigrants the franchise to vote. It is not an outlandish idea. Nor is it a particularly radical idea when we consider that landed immigrants in this country are not allowed to become citizens until they have spent 1,095 days or a full three years here.
If an election occurs during that period of time, it is a full three year wait even if a person had every intention of seeking Canadian citizenship at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps that is another issue we should add to the growing list of subsequential issues to the original motion. Perhaps we should revisit the length of time that landed immigrants have to wait prior to being allowed to become Canadian citizens.
The shocking truth or keynote of a number of speeches was that an awful lot of Canadian citizens do not vote. That is the real tragic issue with which we are coming to grips. So many Canadians have lost faith, hope and confidence in their electoral system that they simply ask why bother and do not show up to vote. The figure used from the last election was that 61% of Canadians voted. In actual fact 61% of registered voters came out to vote. It was only 50% of all Canadians who were 18 years of age and eligible to vote. Only 50% of all eligible voters actually chose to cast a ballot for any political party. That is something that is very worrisome.
I come to this argument from a different angle than perhaps the previous three speakers who spoke against the idea. I like the idea. It would be an important vote of confidence and an important gesture on the part of Canada if we allowed landed immigrants to vote during the period of time prior to becoming Canadian citizens.
The logic I use is that landed immigrants are subject to the terms, conditions and rules set out by the Government of Canada through the political process. They live under those rules. It is a natural justice issue. They should have some right to influence the terms, conditions and laws under which they live.
As soon as they get here they start paying taxes. As soon as they get here and achieve landed status virtually all the rights and benefits of Canadian citizenship are available to them except for the right to vote.
I do not believe it would end there. I honestly believe that we would be better off and would get a more honest input in terms of whether the country is serving their needs as it should. That would be a valuable contribution and an enabling measure, a gesture to the world, that we value their presence in our country, that we want them to come to our country and help us grow this great land.
When I was a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration we dealt with the citizenship bill. We wrestled for a long time with what it means to be granted the right to be a Canadian citizen and how much we value it.
All member should be aware of the conclusion we came to, that when we extend rights to a certain group it does not diminish the rights of others. In fact it strengthens the rights of others. The idea of rights is not some finite pie that if I give someone else too much I have to accept less. It does not cheapen or diminish my Canadian citizenship to extend the rights of citizenship to others, even prior to their actually taking out that piece of paper. I think it is an excellent debate and it helps us to achieve our immigration goals.
The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration also dealt with the very compelling fact that without immigration we are at a below zero population growth. At the current level of population growth in Canada we would be a country of 18 million people in 50 years without immigration. We would have shrunk from 33 million people to 18 million people or about the size of Minneapolis in 2050.
It is critical we encourage more and more people to choose to make Canada their home. If they are to have this three year waiting period of 1,095 days prior to which they can actually get Canadian citizenship, surely in the interim we should be able to tell them that they will enjoy the rights and privileges of all Canadians as soon as they become landed immigrants, including the right to cast a ballot or vote in a federal election.
Landed immigrants are free to take part in the political process. They can join political parties. They can make political campaign contributions. They can be elected delegates to political conventions. They can go to nomination meetings and choose candidates. They can do everything short of voting.
It has become a bit of an emotional argument or there must be some kind of a sentiment that it will somehow diminish or cheapen my citizenship to offer the right to vote to landed immigrants. I urge members to get beyond that point of view. It is not positive and it is not helpful to the larger debate.
As the hon. member mentioned, the issue of electoral reform is critical. We should all be concerned with these terrible numbers, that only 50% of eligible voters cast their ballots. The issue of proportional representation has been raised. Our political party has been doing some work on that by meeting with the fair elections league which advocates PR for the simple reason that votes are not wasted.
In other words, if I were an NDP voter living in Edmonton my vote would be lost in the haystack. With PR one's vote counts no matter what because if one's party gets 10% of the vote nationally it gets 10% of the seats.
It would encourage more people to come out and vote if they knew their vote would not be wasted or lost. Whatever political stripe, they would be comfortable that their vote would actually mean something and they would not just be going through an exercise.
I know we will not get a chance to vote on this motion because unfortunately it has been deemed non-votable. It is something Canadians should address in a far more serious way.
I encourage members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to look into this area of study. Standing committees have a right to choose what areas of research they undertake. I think they should dig into this area more deeply and perhaps they will be motivated to do so because of the debate we are having today.
At least two out of five speeches agree that it is an excellent idea. I think it is an idea that has enough merit. It should be dealt with further at the standing committee and perhaps adopted and introduced. It would be a very proud day for Canada to be able to announce to landed immigrants that in the next federal election they will be asked to cast their ballots and that their views will be valued in our electoral process.