Mr. Speaker, with well over one million people living in Canada with Ukrainian heritage, it is easy to understand why so many have an interest in what happens in Ukraine. This past weekend I was in Lviv, Ukraine, and had the opportunity to visit political parties, the election commission and a polling station on election day.
Ukraine having an independent electoral commission is a good thing, however, I question its ability to enforce election law compliance. Based on some of the questions that I asked about the electoral process, it is clear that some rules are not being enforced.
Strong election laws and procedures for all stakeholders are critically important. Ensuring compliance to election laws is very complicated and expensive but it is an absolute must. Even Elections Canada needs to improve on this point.
All in all, from what I could see, the people of Ukraine are, at the very least, participating in the democratic election, but there is a need for a more powerful, independent election commission.
Building public confidence in an electoral process takes political goodwill, strong electoral laws and the knowledge that there is a consequence to those individuals or parties that try to cheat.