Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, over the weekend, the Chief Electoral Officer was the latest to speak out against the Conservative's unfair elections act. He said, “...my reading of the act is that I can no longer speak about democracy in this country”. This is unprecedented. The unfair elections

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, even he cannot prevent us from celebrating Alexandre Bilodeau's gold and Mikaël Kingsbury's silver. The Conservatives' unfair election act would put a gag order on the Chief Electoral Officer. That includes scrapping the student vote program, which has engaged

Democratic Reform   Canadian voters. It would also give Conservatives an unfair advantage. Would the government at least allow Canadians to have their say on it? Will it support the NDP's proposal for cross-country hearings on Bill C-23, the unfair elections act?

Fair Elections Act   to the bill, unlike what is going on at present. Let us not finally forget that, surprise, surprise, this unfair elections act arrived in the House just before the budget comes out and at the same time as Canadians are naturally focused on the Olympics. That is what is really going on. I

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, would the Prime Minister agree to amend his unfair elections act to remove the gag order against the Chief Electoral Officer, yes or no?

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader left today's committee meeting on the unfair elections act to say he was against cross-country hearings, and said that meeting with Canadians would be a “gong show”. Does the Minister of State for Democratic

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary said he was opposed to cross-country hearings on the unfair elections act because it would influence public opinion. Is that what the minister is afraid of, Canadians having the audacity to exercise their democratic right to express

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives have blocked cross-country hearings on their unfair elections act. Obviously, they are afraid of public opinion. They are proposing massive and complex changes to our election laws that would significantly change the way our democracy operates

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House leader's parliamentary secretary told reporters he opposes hearings on the unfair elections act. He is worried that by letting Canadians have their say, it would rally public opinion against his bill. I agree. The more Canadians learn

Business of Supply   about. That will only be fully apparent to the government if the committee is able to have some hearings outside of the Ottawa bubble. I would also like to make a final link: If we had a fair voting system, this unfair elections act would never have hit the floor of the House

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of the motion by the hon. member for Hamilton Centre that there should be nation-wide public hearings on the fair elections act, a bill known increasingly across this country as the unfair elections act. The member for Hamilton Centre proposes

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, this unfair elections act would actually strip Elections Canada of its investigative powers, not strengthen them. We saw how weak those powers are with the Penashue scandal. The Commissioner of Elections Canada would be under the Director of Public Prosecutions

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member across the way said at the beginning of his question that the New Democrats came out against the unfair elections act before it was released, but that is not true. We did not come out against this act before it was released. To sum up

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for that answer. Let us talk about a democratic path here in Canada. Conservatives have said that public hearings on the unfair elections act would be “a gong show” and “a circus”. However, Conservatives supported the unelected Senate holding

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, Canadians are upset about the unfair elections act, upset about changes that would suppress the vote of youth, first nations, the homeless, and even seniors. Changes to elections rules should be non-partisan. Instead, Bill C-23 would in effect rig the Canada