Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada has to change its method of enumerating electors in this country. The present system, which has been in effect for the past three elections, is not working. The system is getting worse, not better, and is disenfranchising many voters. I believe it is contributing to low turnout in Canadian elections, an issue that should be of fundamental importance to Elections Canada and the House.
Voters arrive at the polling stations on election day only to find that they are no longer on the voters list even though they were there in the previous election and had not died. As a result, hundreds of people in my riding and across P.E.I. leave embarrassed, blaming the government of the day, and they rightly should. If this is happening in P.E.I., how many tens of thousands of voters across Canada are affected?
My constituents have let me know this is their largest issue of contention regarding the election process. New technology and processes are supposed to be adopted because of the improvements they achieve. If this does not occur, then the status quo should be maintained. The old way worked best, door to door enumeration. Let us do it again.
If P.E.I., the smallest province, can afford to enumerate, then everybody else--