Federal MPs are scrambling to fix a Canada Elections Act glitch that would inadvertently strip more than a million rural and First Nations’ residents of a vote in the next election.
The disenfranchised would include close to 190,000 residents of Saskatchewan.
“There are meetings between the parties and I do believe this will be fixed in the next couple of weeks,” Liberal parliamentary House leader Ralph Goodale said Oct. 26.
“This cannot be allowed to stand or to fall by the wayside.”
He is advocating an amendment to the Canada Elections Act that could be supported by all parties in Parliament and passed quickly.
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It’s the kind of legislative debacle that can create red faces in the House of Commons and the Senate.
On Feb. 20, amendments to the Elections Act passed through the Commons by a vote of 249 to 27. It later had an easy ride through the Senate as well.
The amendments were largely technical and one of them dealt with a requirement that for identification purposes, eligible voters would have to produce proof of a civic address identifying them positively as residents of the riding and the poll area where they are voting.
No one thought to ask how that would affect the more than one million Canadians who have a rural route address or a post box, but no road or street number.
Elections Canada has ruled that is not an acceptable civic address for the purposes of the legislation.
Last week when a rural Newfoundland Liberal MP raised the issue in the Commons, government House leader Peter Van Loan said the issue will be fixed.
“I suspect that all parties will want to enthusiastically support efforts to correct this deficiency,” said the minister from a rural Ontario riding.
“In any event, we are confident that if there is an electoral event on the horizon, no one will lose the right to vote.”
He said the chief electoral officer will use his discretion to find a way to restore the vote to those who might be technically ineligible.
The concern is that if four byelections required by next spring are called before the act is amended, as many as 70 percent of residents in a northern Saskatchewan riding now without an MP would not be able to vote.
“It is worst in that riding but in every riding in Saskatchewan, this would affect people,” said Goodale. “Even in my own (Regina) Wascana riding, several thousand would be affected. We need to find some other acceptable means of identification.”
In a news release on the issue, Goodale called it a Conservative law that was rushed through Parliament without proper scrutiny because of government pressure tactics. However, all Liberal MPs voted for it on third reading. Only New Democrats opposed.
One route the government could take would be to add an amendment to Elections Act legislation introduced last week that would require Muslim women to remove their veils at polling booths to guarantee their identity.
Goodale said that would be a bad move because the veil legislation could be controversial while the rural disenfranchisement issue should not be and needs to be fixed quickly.
