Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by expressing my support for the bill introduced by the government leader and reminding members that the new measures in this bill are the result of consultation by various parties over a period of several years.
First, with respect to the time difference dilemma, we realized that the situation of Saskatchewan called for special attention. The minister has already covered this this morning. A special amendment in the bill also applies to the various aspects of publication during an electoral campaign. The problem of blackouts arises, not just with respect to advertising per se, but also with respect to the publication of opinion polls.
The minister has set out the government's reasoning very clearly: in any democratic election, the electorate must have the final word, without any interference or influence. Under the 1974 legislation, third parties claiming to have no political affiliation could intervene financially and however they wished in an election campaign.
Obviously, partisan independence was quickly challenged and, in 1993, new legislation had to be introduced to limit their spending to $1,000. And this was where the domino effect of the Charter came into play, because the courts ruled that such a limit was contrary to the exercise of rights and freedoms. The solution thus led to a new problem.
But there is public pressure on the government to do something about this.
Polls have shown that eight out of ten Canadians approve the imposition of third party spending limits. What is more, 79% of those polled think that these third parties should not be allowed to spend more than the candidates, as is now the case.
In this new bill, the government is therefore proposing that third party spending be capped at $150,000 nationally, and $3,000 per riding.
Still on the topic of funding, another factor called for immediate attention and that was inflation. By keeping its fiscal house in order, the present government has undoubtedly managed to minimize inflation's impact in recent years.
Nonetheless, since the 1974 legislation, the need for improvements at the electoral level has made itself felt. And this is another of the provisions in Bill C-2.
As I indicated, the bill is a good step in the right direction. I am certain there will be other desirable measures in the not too distant future.
I would like to put on record a suggestion that was made by a group of constituents in Davenport who some months ago suggested the establishment of a declined vote ballot paper. In other words, the option ought to be given to the elector to indicate that he or she declines to vote as a form of rejection, disapproval or malcontent with the candidates who are indicated on the ballot paper, none of whom meet the expectations of the elector. It is a novel idea. It is the subject of a private member's bill which I put forth. I look forward to the opportunity of explaining it in more detail at the appropriate moment.
Before concluding I will comment on the financing of election campaigns. Election campaigns need not be as expensive as they are now. They can be run on much smaller budgets, with much less publicity at the national and local levels, with perhaps more debate and with particular discussions at the community level.
There is no doubt we have a good system in place. It is the envy of many other electoral jurisdictions, but we have to make progress on the question of maintaining the electoral process as independent as possible from sectoral interests.
In that respect I urge the government to give serious consideration to the elimination of contributions by sectoral interests such as the corporate sector and organized labour and trade unions and to increase the incentives for individual contributions.
Under that kind of system which exists in some jurisdictions the head of a corporation or union would make a personal contribution. In other words, the contribution would be on a personal basis rather than on the basis of a company or a union. The person would make that contribution out of the funds available to him or her as a private citizen and not as a contribution in the name of a corporation that may pursue specific interests in the legislation in the following parliament with a specific bill under certain conditions, or may use the threat of the withdrawal of contributions in future elections as a means of obtaining the attention and bending, so to say, the will of the government of the day.
The ideal goal that we ought to be aiming for would be a system in which individual contributions would become more and more in number, thus enhancing the democratic quality of our system because it would involve more people recognizing their civic duty and their civic right to make contributions to the party of their choice, but on a private, personal and individual basis. At the same time this would be coupled with the goal of eliminating corporate sector and organized labour contributions and any contribution by a specific narrow interest in society.
One has to recognize that this is one of the issues that the government has already tackled in Bill C-2, by way of its amendments, which will deal with sectoral interests and specific interests with respect to publicity and intervention during an election period.
We are on the right path. We are moving in the right direction. We now need to build on this measure contained in Bill C-2 and move toward a system that will allow for the flourishing of individual contributions and a gradual, if not determined, elimination of contributions from the corporate and organized labour sectors.
