Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, if there is an exclusion that he wants to revisit, like when the NDP excluded all fundraising expenses from its spending limits, for example, first he should contact his party, which makes its own rules for leadership races. Second, I invite him to bring forward any amendments.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, there are none, and our Chief Electoral Officer will not be muzzled either. He will still be able to talk about democracy in Canada. However, she refers to a motion in the House of Commons in which we voted for Elections Canada's powers, and it said we would support giving him the power to request all necessary documents from political parties to ensure compliance with the Elections Act.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, we will be adding mandatory auditing of every cent of election expense money that parties are hoping to have reimbursed. That auditing process is new. In addition, according to section 435, the Chief Electoral Officer can choose to ask for more information before reimbursing parties with taxpayers' money.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, people do not need a driver's licence to vote in Canada. In fact, they do not even need photo identification. There are 39 forms of identification allowed. These include old age security cards, hospital and medical clinic cards, hospital bracelets worn by residents of long-term care facilities, Veterans Affairs Canada health cards, and I could go on.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, point number one, the NDP excluded all fundraising expenses from its own leadership race, a position against which it is arguing right now. Second, the Chief Electoral Officer is wrong on this point, as well as on other points. The bill we are bringing forward, the fair elections act, would require that all mass-calling scripts and all autodial scripts be kept for a year, so they can be available for investigators to examine them.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, this gives me occasion to correct the explicit factual error in the CEO's testimony when he said that the errors linked to vouching were strictly record-keeping that would not compromise an election. This is what page 10 of his own report said: ...the Supreme Court made it clear that such errors in other circumstances could contribute to a court overturning an election.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, yes.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, first, young voters who are students can use their student card, for example. Second, the voters list is used to generate the voter cards, and there are errors for one in six names on that list. Elections Canada maintains that list, not the government. Those are therefore Elections Canada's errors.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the New Democrats are the ones living in a bubble. They are the ones who believe that a person should be able to vote without any form of identification. Canadians believe that, with 39 options for identification, it is reasonable to expect a person to present a document to prove who he is.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the measure to which the member refers is a standard measure that applies to numerous officers of Parliament already. It allows, at the same time, total independence for the way in which the Commissioner of Canada Elections carries out investigations. In fact, the fair elections act will give new independence to the commissioner.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, in fact we are extending Elections Canada's ability to get people out to vote by focusing those efforts on the information Canadians actually need. Those are the basics of voting: where, when, what ID to bring, and what special tools are available to help disabled Canadians cast their ballot.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, as I already said, for many positions, people are appointed by the first- and second-place parties in each riding across Canada. In fact, the current Canada Elections Act sets out four such positions. The same principle will apply with central polling supervisors, who will be appointed on the recommendation of the leading party from the previous election in that riding.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the NDP members suddenly want to listen to Mr. Neufeld, but when I talked about the 50,000 serious mistakes related to vouching that were made during the last election, the NDP members did not want to listen. Those mistakes were serious, which is why we will eliminate this approach and replace it with 39 forms of identification, while requiring that Elections Canada inform Canadians of the types of identification required.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, our schools educate. Our parents educate their kids on politics and discussions around the dinner table. The media regularly keeps people informed. However, the education role that Elections Canada is supposed to play is to inform people where, when, and how to vote.

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, I know what the member is referring to but is backing off from actually saying out loud: the issue of vouching. Mr. Neufeld's report demonstrated that there were over 50,000 irregularities with vouching in the last election. These were serious errors that could potentially lead to a judge overturning an election result.