OTTAWA – When westerners next vote in a federal election, they will not endure the traditional irritation of hearing the election has been decided in the East before their votes even are counted, government House leader Herb Gray said last week.
He told a House of Commons committee that the government has decided to adopt as its own the effort of Vancouver Liberal MP Anna Terrana to have election laws changed to stagger voting hours across the country.
He did not say exactly what new rules will be proposed.
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“I am sympathetic to the idea (of staggered hours) but deeply concerned that voting hours respond to the concerns of Western Canadians without creating new and undue problems for Canadians in the eastern part of our country,” Gray told a Commons committee studying a government bill to shorten the campaign to 36 days and to create a permanent voters’ list.
He said the government will be attaching voting hours changes to the legislation “to ensure the issue is dealt with in time for the next election.”
The proposal would mean British Columbia polls would close at 7 p.m. and polls in Newfoundland would close at 11:30 p.m.
Under the plan, most votes would be counted across the country at the same time.
Prairie and B.C. voters would not sit down in front of their televisions at 8 p.m. election night, when local polls have just closed, to hear that a majority government already has been elected by voters in Eastern and Atlantic Canada.
West feels alienated
“Many British Columbians feel they are second class citizens,” Terrana told the Commons last week. “They feel alienated …. The other western provinces have the same problem, although not as much as B.C.”
Gray indicated he does not want to see polls staying open that late in the East, but will try to find a compromise.
All parties in the Commons agreed with the principle, but Reform MPs registered some reservations.
Calgary MP Stephen Harper criticized the Liberals for suggesting a change in voting will deal with western alienation.
It is the actions of governments dominated by Ontario and Quebec MPs which have alienated westerners, he said.
“It is an insult to suggest that this is a serious attempt to address western alienation,” said Harper.
He also said he is concerned that by closing polls earlier in the West, it will deny voters a chance to vote at the end of the work day when many finally have a chance to get to the polls.
