Mr. Speaker, I note in the member's written question a reference was made regarding proportional voting and he just expressed some concerns about the first past the post system that we now use. I also note that the member opposite was first elected as a member of the New Democratic Party, later to become an independent member of Parliament, and more recently to join a party again, in this case, the Green Party. The Green Party, as we know, supports proportional voting and as such we are here to deal with this question tonight.
To the best of my knowledge, the official opposition, the New Democratic Party, that this member was first elected to be a part of, has not stated publicly support for proportional representation voting. I only mention this because I would question if the member's constituents have given a mandate that supports proportional voting.
In my home province of British Columbia where the leader of the Green Party also represents an electoral riding, B.C. voters have rejected the very idea of a new electoral system twice. While I understand that the Green Party supports the idea of proportional representation, I do not believe that there is a clear mandate for Canadians that is in agreement with this.
I would also point out in this place I am not aware of any of the official parties sharing support for proportional representation outside of the member's party. It is perhaps one of the few things that collectively many members of the House do agree upon. In that respect I would submit that it would be undemocratic to support a voting system that to date is only supported by the two members of the Green Party.
I should also point out that when we consider the proposed amendments to the fair elections act, what remains of the bill for the most part are changes more of a technical nature as opposed to a wholesale change of our electoral process as the Green Party would prefer.
For example, adding one more day of advanced polling, something that has shown increased usage by voters, is not to the best of my knowledge being opposed. Again I would hope that the member opposite would think that offering an extra day so that any Canadian who would like to vote can find the time to do so and participate in our democracy, the very thing the member brought up in his comments pointing to the issue of not having enough people voting and participating. I hope the member would support it; likewise, the stiffer penalties for impersonating Elections Canada staff.
As for eliminating a decades-old provision for blacking out certain electoral information so people on the west coast of Canada would not know what results there were, obviously social media has changed that. Closing loopholes around unpaid leadership loans and using estate bequests to circumvent donation limits are not aspects being opposed by the fair elections act.
As for vouching, the member is likely aware that this is an issue being addressed by an amendment, although the majority of Canadians I have heard from strongly support that they want to see people have the ID necessary to vote.
In closing, I would submit that the amendments to the fair elections act will ultimately help eliminate irregularities in our voting system and ultimately help increase voter participation because we all do want to see Canadians take their democratic rights and take the opportunity to vote in order for us to do the work of the people.