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Procedure and House Affairs committee I'm simply saying that in our British Westminster model, if the government is defeated on a matter of confidence, that is what the crown must take cognizance of. The constitutional experts can argue on that. I think the point, though.... Again I emphasize the practical versus t
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee You're asking me to give an opinion on a constitutional issue, the discretion of the Governor General in a situation like that. I don't know how to answer your question, because we can start speculating: how does the Governor General know the government has manipulated? The oppos
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee No, I don't think I said that.
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee I may have gone too far, Madam Jennings, in terms of saying it's a new paradigm. I think it is intuitive to a great extent. All I'm saying is that you have some empirical evidence—some—and I just think the reality will be that politicians will act in a certain way. That's my supp
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee Mr. Chair, in my opening remarks I said the bill is incremental. It's not revolutionary and it's not going to solve all these problems. I still think it's an improvement. Particularly in the case of recruiting more minorities, women, and aboriginal people, the mere fact that pr
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee Mr. Chair, I think I can only refer to what I said before. We cannot alter the legal situation. You're right, it is a bit subjective, but unless there's a national crisis or in the case of a majority government, for some reason--which is rare in our system, or almost impossible--
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee Mr. Guimond, as I said earlier, there are no guarantees here. The only way you could have a guarantee is by amending the Constitution. We don't want to go down that route. But short of that, I think what you're going to find--again I cite experience--is that first ministers will
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee On your specific question, Mr. Reid, I will take the assignment of making a written submisssion. I'd be willing to do that and I will undertake to put something together as soon as I can.
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee One minute on this question, Mr. Chair? I'll try. Mr. Chair, Madam Jennings is absolutely right when she says that legally nothing in Bill C-16 changes the current legal situation or the conventions of the Constitution. The reason it cannot is because the only way that can be af
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee I put faith in the intelligence of the electorate. With a fixed election date, if governments try to use government advertising, it's patent. The electorate will know. If a government on the eve of a fixed election date starts engaging in government advertising, it will be obviou
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee Perish the thought, Mr. Guimond. I didn't have that thought at all. Are you suggesting Sunday as well as Monday, or are you just saying Sunday as the election day?
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee I think traditionally, historically, for a lot of Canadians that is not regarded as an appropriate day for that kind of public political activity, so I wouldn't be favourably disposed to a Sunday date. I think that since Sir John A's day, or Laurier's day anyway, the tradition h
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee I think your specific question, Mr. Guimond, is whether Sunday voting would increase the voter turnout.
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee The difficulty, Mr. Chair, is that for any date you choose, there will always be potential conflicts. Of course the bill allows for some flexibility in that regard, in terms of cultural or religious events and so on. Certainly from a party operational point of view, I think the
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison
Procedure and House Affairs committee Mr. Owen, I'm from British Columbia, as you are, and we don't have to just speak in theory; we can look at practice. Correct me if I'm wrong, but British Columbia has gone through a full cycle of fixed election dates, and I don't believe those difficulties arose. I think British
October 3rd, 2006Committee meeting
Michael D. Donison