Procedure and House Affairs committee  On the first point, yes, I think if we considered lowering the voting age at the same time as there was a vigorous civics education process, you'd be getting people when they are still in school and when they have the day to learn. My daughter is nine. She told me how much she wishes she was doing more civics in school.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you for that. I can see the logic to it, because as elected members, you are in a bit of a tough spot to deal with this without the help of an independent body. There is a sense that, you know, because you're the participants in the very elections you're talking about, it's possible that....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, that will be interesting if, for whatever reason, the timelines end up crashing and an election happens before this thing is over. Interim reports make a lot of sense, particularly if there's going to be public engagement in this. I think it's important especially if it does go the way of having a really broad conversation around democracy, what's wrong with it and what we can do.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This is hard because, as soon as you alert the public that there's an issue, then there are going to be questions about whether or not the results of the election will be accepted no matter what, because you've already flagged that there's a problem. Then what do you do about it?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think there are a number of things that we could do to increase turnout but also just to increase how inclusive the conversation is. I really think that 20 years ago, when people were doing research on why the turnout had tanked in the early 2000s, a lot of these issues came up.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am going to be very clear and say that I am not at PCO. I am not going to put that hat on. I will, with the hat that I do wear, say that it is hard to determine exactly how you're going to draw parameters around an exercise like this. I think there are kind of two general ways you can go.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  To try to identify what is truth and what is not truth.... You'd think that would be an easy process. You'd think that people would agree on the difference between truth and falsehood, but we don't anymore. I think that things like education are really important. However, that's not an easy fix.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think this is a fascinating topic. I'm going to take the last part first. I do not think that we should lower the contribution limit, because it's already quite low. If we lower that, I don't see what it would accomplish. For example, it's around $1,650 or $1,700, and if you went lower than that, you wouldn't be achieving anything.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would agree with that, and I think that's what's really important. At this point, I think we are in the middle of a process whereby Mr. Johnston will make some recommendations about how to deal with this issue. They could include a public inquiry or not. I would be really sad if he didn't make a recommendation for a public inquiry that is broad and not just about foreign interference.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That was 2015, so the rules have changed since then.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Apart from transparency, I'm not sure what you can do, apart from making it so miserable for a third party to contribute to political conversations that they don't want to do it at all, and I don't think that's a better thing.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I appreciate the question. Thank you. I think that when it comes to third parties it's particularly difficult, because they tend to function as multi-purpose kinds of organizations, where they might be getting all kinds of money from all kinds of people and organizations from different places, depending on what their primary function is.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. I'll make just a few opening comments. The issue of foreign interference in elections has gained prominence in Canadian politics as of late, due largely to concerns about the possibility of such interference in certain ridings in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think the circumstances were different in the sense that the premier, Premier McGuinty at the time.... What really made me angry about that one was that he prorogued until the party chose a new leader, which I thought was completely unnecessary. There wasn't a particular time frame.