Procedure and House Affairs committee  In terms of management, if you're not able to hold the election on the Monday and you're geared for that, I find it preferable to do it on the Tuesday, which is what the law would say now. And if that Tuesday, for some reason, were problematic, in light of the other criteria involved, I'd prefer to flip it over to the Wednesday so that we're only adding two days to the electoral process instead of adding one week.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, the Royal Commission that reported in 1992 looked at the possibility of holding elections on a Sunday but did not recommend it. It decided not to make that recommendation because of the reaction in various parts of the country where Sunday remains a religious day that people think should not be associated with elections.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, if residency is the issue, whether the advance poll is held that day or not, when they're back home they can go and vote in the office of the returning officer at any time. That may not be as convenient, obviously, as an advance poll because of location, but that is one possibility that is open to them.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I think one has to take into account the differences between the American system, fundamentally, and the Canadian system. We don't have a system of primaries, and that triggers a lot of what they're doing. That's why they get involved a year ahead of time, or even more, because the primaries start to set in.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  With respect to the Treasury Board directive, the committee could let it be known to Treasury Board that this is its view, and I suspect the Treasury Board will adopt that, if this were the committee's view. In terms of an interdiction for political parties to advertise, it is something that could be introduced in a statute.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm accompanied today by Mrs. Diane Davidson, deputy chief electoral officer and chief legal counsel; and Mr. Rennie Molnar, senior director of operations, register, and geography. Members of the committee may recall that when I appeared on June 13 of this year I expressed my agreement with the idea of fixed-date elections.

Foreign Affairs committee  And there were no presidential candidates for the second round, and despite that there was still a 30%-plus turnout, which was double the previous score. It was recognized to be a very successful second round, frankly. I just thought I'd add that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly, I'll answer the first question, and obviously I'll allow my colleague to talk about endemic corruption. In my view, it would take perhaps one more year of partnering with the Haitian electoral authority—should one be established—to say there is no longer a need for any kind of external support, other than perhaps financial through other means and so on.

Foreign Affairs committee  With respect to documentation, we'll provide that comparison for you, to the extent that we can find it. The conseil electoral provisoire is provisional, as the word says, and it's supposed to become permanent through the elections. The elected local authorities are supposed to roll up into a permanent body, and if there are no local elections, one will have to see what can be done.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Since you've already introduced my good friend and colleague Mr. Jacques Bernard, as well as my friend and colleague from Elections Canada, I'll proceed and get into my text. I will being in my mother tongue, and then I will switch to English.