Peter Adams

[Electoral System, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, there has been a decline in participation in elections in Canada and in all developed nations. Almost all of that decline can be explained by a very low turnout of under 30-year-old voters.

The book, Anatomy of a liberal victory by André Blais, which is listed in the reference list that we have just tabled and which was published by Broadview Press in Peterborough in 2002, analyses this decline in participation for Canada.

Young people are not avoiding the polls because they are more cynical about politics. In fact, they are less cynical than other age groups, so we would expect this, given the optimism of youth. They are not shunning the political party system. In fact, they appear to be no more dissatisfied with the party system than their elders. They are not shunning the party system in favour of extra parliamentary political activism, such as anti-globalization or environmental group activism. Most of them are simply not engaged at all.

The author of this book points out that the two most important factors influencing young voter turnout are level of political knowledge and level of political interest. In both cases the level is very low among young Canadians. To persuade more of them to go out to the polls at election time, we must find ways to engage them in the political process. Lack of knowledge leads to lack of interest, which leads to disengagement. Conversely, increased knowledge should increase interest and in turn lead to increased participation.

Political knowledge includes knowledge of the civics process and structure, and an understanding of how that process affects issues of concern to the young voters. We need to demonstrate the mechanics and relevance of government. Young voters need to know how government affects their lives.

The bedrock of democracy is the educational level of its citizens, including in this case the educational level with respect to the democratic process itself. Many schools work hard at this and I urge all provincial and territorial ministries of education to strengthen and make mandatory civics education at both the elementary and secondary levels. Ideally, the secondary components would be for 16 to 18 year olds in the pre-voting years.

I urge the federal government to support these efforts in every appropriate way. It could work through the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada to do this, but there are other avenues which would be equally effective. There are already federal materials available to assist in the process. Heritage Canada, Elections Canada and the Library of Parliament all do good work in this area. I urge the federal government to produce and circulate more electoral educational materials. I urge my fellow MPs to visit schools and youth groups to discuss their work and our fine system of government.

My motion suggests more immediate practical action which is within the federal jurisdiction. Under the Canada Elections Act the Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Canada are mandated to develop and circulate educational materials on our electoral system and to actively promote our democracy in various ways. They are already doing some of these things, as a visit to the Elections Canada website will show. The website is listed on the list of references we just tabled.

I urge Canadians to contact Elections Canada for information on such things as the symposium on electoral participation in Canada, which was held at Carleton University last March or the National Forum on Youth Voting, which was held in Calgary last October. Again, these are referenced in the list. Reports from these events and other activities are available on the Elections Canada website.

These meetings brought together young people and representatives of business and non-governmental agencies, aboriginal groups, labour organizations as well as academics, researchers and the media. This is fine work, but it needs to be promoted and expanded. While civics education in all its forms is a very valuable and stimulating interest in the political process, I believe that well organized formal simulations of voting for young people below voting age with published results would greatly heighten awareness and interest in participation in elections.

The idea is that around election time, and this could apply to municipal, provincial and first nations as well as federal elections, voting could be conducted in schools and other locations using formal Elections Canada procedures and materials, for example, official looking ballots and ballot boxes.

At the end of election day, ballots from such simulations would be counted using official procedures. The results would be published by Elections Canada so that the young pre-voters' choices would be widely known.

There are already organizations and individuals in Canada doing this sort of thing. For example, I commend Joel Parkes and teachers in Peterborough, notably Gary Fenn, guide and scout leaders in Peterborough and others in my riding for their work on these matters.

I also commend Taylor Gunn, the chief electoral officer of Kids Voting Canada for the great success of Student Vote 2003 during last year's Ontario election. In that simulation for the Ontario provincial election, 335,000 students took part and voted. I would point out that the number of students who voted was more than the total populations of the territories and our smaller provinces combined.

I commend the scout and guide leaders in my riding and across Canada for their fine work in connection with the civics badge, and elementary and high school teachers for their fine work.

I commend the 20,000 Project which is particularly geared to encourage young women to vote.

I commend Rush the Vote, a Canadian expression of Rock the Vote in the United States.

I commend the Kawartha Rotary Club and the Peterborough Rotary Club for their work on citizenship.

These are only examples of work that is already underway to improve the participation of young people in public life, especially in the electoral process.

My motion suggests, in fact it directs, that Elections Canada work actively and creatively with such groups and people. Elections Canada should provide federal polling instructions for mock elections and federal polling station materials to give a sense of authenticity to the efforts of these people. It should also provide instructions and examples for teachers, scout leaders, service club leaders and others who might become involved in this important work.

Above all, Elections Canada should publish the results of such mock elections so that the voices of pre-voters will be clearly heard.

I see this as a motion that will engage the House of Commons and all political parties here in addressing the problem of low voter turnout. I do not see this as a partisan matter, but something that all MPs are concerned about. That is why in my motion Elections Canada is directed to report regularly on these matters to Parliament through the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on which senior party officials represent all parties here.

I urge all members to support this motion so that Elections Canada will be encouraged to be even more responsive in these matters as the next federal election draws near.

[Electoral System, February 17th, 2004]

moved:

That, in the opinion of this House, the Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Canada should develop materials to facilitate youth voting initiatives and make these available to community groups and schools in order to enable young people to learn more about the Canadian electoral system, and to cast their votes at special boxes in polling stations during electoral events and to make public the vote totals, and that the Chief Electoral Officer provide a report on the activities in this regard annually to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to Motion No. 398 on youth voting and I am pleased that it is seconded by the member for Northumberland.

The motion would direct Elections Canada to further develop its efforts to promote the participation of young Canadians in our electoral process and that Elections Canada work proactively with groups like Kids Voting Canada, scouts and guides, teachers, service clubs and the like to do this.

I believe that a friendly amendment to my motion will be presented by a colleague later in the debate. I am very open to this because I look forward to all-party support for the motion.

I would also seek unanimous consent to table a list of references, websites, books and so on, on this topic of youth voting. The list has been presented to colleagues in all the other parties who are participating. They have agreed to it and have already added some items.

Mr. Speaker, my request is that the table would take this list of references so that the record of the debate would be more useful to young people and they could find websites dealing with this topic.

[Supply, February 17th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, a part of this discussion is about truth and transparency. They are both concepts which I think are extremely important for the House. I know my colleague likely did not mean it, but I really thought he said that the gun registry had cost $1 billion. I know he would not want to leave that in the minds of people watching this.

Is it not true that the billion dollars to which he has referred, and to which the Auditor General has referred, is the amount of money that will be spent by 2005, which is in the first 10 years of the gun control program. Roughly one-third of it is to be spent for screening. Roughly one-third of it is being spent for licensing, training and things of that type. Roughly one-third of it is being spent on the registry which he mentioned?

Like him, I deplore the money that was wasted on new software and things like that for the registry. However, before he goes into the rant about the waste, which I do accept in that program, would he not agree with me that is the billion dollars to which he was referring, yes or no?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate my colleague on his appointment as minister. To be perfectly honest, I cannot recite the exact title yet, but he is in effect our minister of lifelong learning. I congratulate him on that and on the way he dealt with it in his speech. We have needed such a department for many years. I hope, not that he will take over the whole federal government in the area of lifelong learning, but that he will develop within his new department an expertise in these matters which reaches out to the other federal departments.

I have two specific things that I hope the minister will take under advisement. He mentioned student loans and the problems they create. I would point out that right now less than 15% of the students in our medical schools come from homes with what we call lower middle class incomes or lower; 85% come from upper middle class or higher. Would the member take under advisement the matter of residency? Is residency for a medical student training or work?

Second, would he consider working through cabinet so that he and his successors become Canada's permanent representative to the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada in order to have consistency in the federal government's dealings with the provinces in these matters?

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to what my colleague had to say. His statistics for Alberta really are extraordinary. I looked at some of the figures for cattle across the country; the predominance of Alberta among the provinces with respect to cattle, particularly beef cattle, is quite extraordinary.

On the other hand, there are millions of cattle in Ontario, Quebec and elsewhere in the country, as he well knows. Also, in my riding I am very conscious of the fact that we are dealing here with ruminants, as he knows. There is the beef industry as such and the dairy industry, which is kind of related, but there are sheep. We have substantial sheep farms in my area and we have goats. I have one very well established buffalo farm of 60 years or so in my riding, which is also being affected by this.

First I want to applaud what the member said. Anything we can do to deal with this BSE crisis, we should do. The thing that concerns me is that in terms of science there is no sense to it and in terms of health there is no sense to it. We are left with politics. I know that we have opposition parties on that side of the House and the government on this side, but what we are actually left with is U.S. politics and Canadian politics.

Truly, what does the member think we have to do to persuade the Americans to open the border, which, as he knows, is the only solution?

[Committees of the House, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have another motion for concurrence. By way of an explanation, this refers to the second report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding televising of committee proceedings, which was tabled on Friday.

If the House gives its consent, I move that the second report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented to the House Friday, February 13, and recommending that the guidelines for broadcasting committee meetings be extended to the end of this session, be concurred in.

[Committees of the House, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the third report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the provisional Standing Orders governing private members' business. The change recommended is to reflect the fact that there are now only four recognized parties, and I should like to move concurrence at this time.

[Agriculture, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

The BSE issue has become a tragedy affecting not only the beef industry but all of rural Canada. In my riding alone, 1,000 families are directly affected.

I have asked before and I ask again, what is the minister doing to help farm families hit by the BSE crisis?

[Foreign Affairs, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to report concerns in my riding about Canada's involvement in the ballistic missile defence system. As there is still widespread public misunderstanding about this matter and about Canada's possible participation in it, I have supported the idea of a debate in the House so that decisions can be made with full public involvement.

One of the concerns my constituents voice is that the establishment of such a system encourages nuclear proliferation around the world. However, if a system is to be put in place by the United States alone, would we be better or worse off?

I urged the Minister of National Defence to bring this matter to the House in a special debate. I am delighted that there will be such a debate this very week.

[Resumption Of Debate On Address In Reply, February 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, in the open letter that I mentioned, which is available on my website, we discuss this question of capacity in great detail. The capacity problem is partly physical and we are transferring funds to the colleges and universities which help them with the physical problem.

It is partly a faculty problem. The universities simply cannot afford to hire faculty to replace faculty who are retiring. As I tried to say, it is also a tuition problem for our own students.

If the member reads the letter he will see that the capacity of our universities and colleges must be addressed for the benefit of the students and of the economy of Canada. I appreciate the member's great interest in this.