XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   XPost: ab.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   The Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand, sounds like a laid-back,   
   soft-spoken man when interviewed by media. I was left thinking, after   
   one such interview, that he seems like a David up against the Goliath of   
   the Harper Cons.   
      
   Seems I was wrong . . . he's rounded up a powerful group of politicians,   
   judges and other experts who are now part of an 'advisory board' he's   
   formed.   
   And Harper & Co are going to have one helluva time ignoring this elite   
   group.  Take a look at the names and be impressed.   
      
   Great stuff, Mr Mayrand!   Maybe we can get our election system cleaned   
   up before the next go-round in 2015.   
   ___________________________________   
      
      
   Postmedia News - October 16, 2013   
      
   Elections Canada appoints high-powered board as federal government   
   prepares new elections law   
      
      
      
   Elections Canada announced Tuesday that it has appointed an advisory   
   board, co-chaired by former auditor general Sheila Fraser and former   
   Supreme Court justice Ian Binnie, the day before the government is   
   expected to announce changes to the Elections Act in the speech from the   
   throne.   
      
   Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand, has been unusually prominent in   
   the media lately, calling on the government to give new powers to the   
   investigators in charge of getting to the bottom of election crimes. He   
   has several times pointed out that the government has not consulted him   
   on the changes it plans to make.   
      
   If the government and the elections agency disagree on the proposed   
   legislation, Mayrand will be able to take advice from a who’s who of   
   Canadian politics.   
      
   Along with Binnie and Fraser, the board includes former premiers Bob Rae   
   and Roy Romanow, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning, former   
   federal cabinet ministers John Manley and Michael Wilson, Conservative   
   Sen. Hugh Segal, journalist Lise Bissonnette, political scientist Paul   
   Thomas, former Ontario ombudsman Roberta Jamieson, Michèle   
   Thibodeau-DeGuire, of l’École Polytechnique de Montréal, and Cathy Wong,   
   of the Quebec YMCA.   
      
   In a release, Elections Canada said the board will advise Mayrand “on   
   matters relating to Canada’s electoral system, its voting processes, and   
   support for a vigorous democracy”   
      
   That may include advising Mayrand on how to react to the government’s   
   Elections Act changes, said Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who was chief   
   electoral officer until 2006.   
      
   “This seems to be to be a good idea because it allows the chief   
   electoral officer to have this body, against which to measure proposals   
   from the government for change, and to accept significant support for   
   his views, and their views, and at the same time to help him steer the   
   course for all the modernizations for the statutes,” he said.   
      
   The relationship between Elections Canada and the Conservatives has   
   often been difficult. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a vocal critic   
   of the organization when he was with the National Citizens Coalition,   
   once deriding the election bureaucrats as “jackasses.”   
      
   The party complained loudly about Elections Canada’s investigation and   
   prosecution of the Tories for exceeding local election limits in the   
   2006 election. The party pleaded guilty and paid $52,000 in fines in 2011.   
      
   The prime minister’s former parliamentary secretary, Peterborough MP   
   Dean Del Mastro, was often critical of the agency when he was pointman   
   for the government on the “robocall” scandal. He himself now faces   
   charges of exceeding spending limits on his 2008 campaign, and has left   
   the Conservative caucus.   
      
   Kingsley said that he hopes the government and Elections Canada are not   
   headed for a showdown over the upcoming legislation.   
      
   “One could only hope that with all the experiences the government has   
   undergone in its relationship with the parliamentary officers, that this   
   would be gone by now,” he said. “But who knows? The government has   
   indicated displeasure in the past. I think it’s going to be an important   
   body to have in place when new legislation is tabled.”   
      
   The advisory board is to meet for the first time this fall.   
      
   The government has not said when it will table changes to the Elections   
   Act. The government had planned on tabling the long-promised legislation   
   in April, but after a closed-door caucus meeting in which Conservative   
   MPs raised objections, the government shelved the act.   
      
   Last March, during the height of the furor over unethical political   
   calls, MPs voted unanimously to give Elections Canada new powers to   
   investigate electoral crime within six months.   
      
      
      
   http://www.theprovince.com/story_print.html?id=9043653&sponsor=escapes.ca   
      
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