XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   XPost: ab.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   Feb 3 2014   
      
   Rocky start for overhaul of Elections Canada   
      
      
   OTTAWA - Opposition critics say they'll be scouring the fine print when   
   the Conservative government introduces legislation Tuesday morning to   
   overhaul Elections Canada.   
      
   Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand has long been calling for reforms,   
   including tighter reporting rules on automated phone calls during   
   election campaigns, penalties for impersonating election officials,   
   stronger investigative powers and more protections for voter privacy.   
      
   The government was poised to introduce a bill last April but balked at   
   the last minute after Conservative MPs who were briefed on its contents   
   objected to some of the measures.   
      
   The latest version isn't getting off to a much better start.   
      
   Pierre Poilievre, the minister responsible for democratic reform, told   
   the House of Commons on Monday that he'd consulted with the chief   
   electoral officer before the new bill was drafted.   
      
   Poilievre labelled as "false" opposition accusations that he hadn't   
   consulted with Mayrand.   
      
   "I did meet with the CEO of Elections Canada some time ago and we had a   
   terrific and a very long meeting, at which I listened carefully to all   
   of his ideas," said Poilievre.   
      
   Not so, Elections Canada confirmed just minutes later.   
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   "The chief electoral officer has not been consulted, and we heard the   
   minister's comments," said spokesman John Enright.   
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   "There's been no consultation on the contents of the bill."   
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   Craig Scott, the NDP democratic reform critic, accused the Conservatives   
   of taking "a completely bad faith approach" to the reform legislation.   
      
   "What kind of game is Mr. Poilievre playing?" said Scott.   
      
   "It could well be that he sat down with Mr. Mayrand for some kind of a   
   courtesy, I'm-the-new-minister, you're-the-chief-electoral-officer   
   meeting, and now he's trying to spin that as a consultation. This is not   
   a good start."   
      
   The Conservative party has had a difficult relationship with Elections   
   Canada since at least 2006, when the elections watchdog caught the party   
   over-spending its election campaign limit by more than $1 million   
   through a scheme that laundered national ad buys through local campaigns.   
      
   Poilievre led the government's fierce denials for years before the party   
   finally pleaded guilty in September 2011, five years and two elections   
   later.   
      
   Ralph Goodale, the veteran Liberal deputy leader, said there's little   
   evidence of good faith when it comes to the Harper Conservatives   
   rewriting election law.   
      
   "It's ominous ... given their track record with Elections Canada, which   
   has been confrontational right from Day 1, and then resentful. It now   
   may have moved to vindictive," said Goodale.   
      
   "It's significant that they've prepared this (bill) without any serious   
   discussion with anyone at Elections Canada. I think everyone would be   
   well advised to read the fine print with a great deal of care."   
      
   Goodale recited just some of the fractious Conservative history with the   
   elections watchdog and said parliamentarians "all need to be very alert."   
      
   "This could in effect be the gutting of Elections Canada."   
      
   Poilievre insists otherwise.   
      
   In TV interviews, on social media and in the Commons, Poilievre has   
   recited the same promised benefits of the new legislation.   
      
   "The fair elections bill will keep everyday Canadians in charge of   
   democracy by putting special interests on the sidelines and pushing rule   
   breakers out of the game altogether," the minister told the House.   
      
   "It will close loopholes to big money, and it will give law enforcement   
   sharper teeth, a longer reach and a freer hand."   
      
   All parties seem to agree Elections Canada needs to be able to resolve   
   investigations more quickly.   
      
   There have been a string of confrontations between Conservatives and   
   Elections Canada since 2006, including a continuing investigation of   
   thousands of fraudulent robocalls made during the 2011 campaign in an   
   apparent effort to suppress the vote.   
      
   A Federal Court judge ruled last May that the Conservative party's   
   tightly guarded voter database was "the most likely source of the   
   information used to make the misleading phone calls." But Justice   
   Richard Mosley ruled he could not overturn any election results because   
   of lack of evidence that the scheme actually diverted non-Conservative   
   voters away from the polls.   
      
   Former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Penashue had to step down   
   last winter over 2011 campaign financing irregularities and lost the   
   subsequent byelection.   
      
   Dean Del Mastro, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former parliamentary   
   secretary, has been charged with campaign offences back dating to the   
   2008 election campaign.   
      
   And last spring, Elections Canada wrote to Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer   
   requesting that two Conservative MPs — James Bezan and Shelley Glover —   
   be suspended because they had failed to comply with campaign expense rules.   
      
   Glover resolved her campaign spending issues through a compliance   
   agreement with Elections Canada while Bezan is fighting the matter in court.   
      
      
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        “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save   
   the environment.”    ― Ansel Adams   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)