Tories delay election bill at last minute
Conservative MPS objected at meeting held the day before bill was to be tabled
The Conservative government announced that its long-awaited election reform bill would be further delayed after MPs objected at a closeddoor meeting on Wednesday.
The Conservatives promised a new law last March at the height of the robocalls affair, and Elections Canada recently proposed new investigative powers for the agency to crack down on dirty calls, including the power to compel testimony from reluctant witnesses.
The minister for democratic reform, Tim Uppal, was scheduled to table the legislation on Thursday. Officials had even planned an early morning technical briefing on the bill for reporters.
But when Uppal gave a presentation at the weekly meeting of the Conservative caucus on Wednesday, MPs raised objections and Uppal agreed to withdraw it.
Soon afterwards, Uppal’s office sent out a release announcing the bill will not be tabled on Thursday as planned, and suggesting they had rushed to accommodate Elections Canada’s recommendations.
“In our desire to rapidly incorporate recent recommendations made by the chief electoral officer, we discovered a last-minute issue in the proposed Elections Reform Act,” Uppal said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Therefore, we are postponing the introduction of legislation. We will take the time necessary to get the legislation right.”
No date was given for the reworked legislation.
Several Conservative MPs spoke out about the bill during the caucus meeting, which was held in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s absence. Harper was in London for the funeral of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Caucus meetings are confidential, but sources say that MPs expressed concerns about many elements of the bill, including new powers to Elections Canada investigators. The party and the agency have long had a rocky relationship.
Several MPs are believed to be under investigation for alleged financing irregularities.
‘We discovered a last-minute issue in the proposed Elections Reform Act. Therefore, we are postponing the introduction of legislation.’
TIM UPPAL Minister for democratic reform
Former party worker Michael Sona was charged at the beginning of the month in connection with a fraudulent election robocall in Guelph, and the agency is actively investigating deceptive calls in ridings across the country.
The bill was expected to update the Elections Act to allow Elections Canada to do more to prevent and prosecute people behind deceptive calls, but the title suggests a broader reform.
“An Act to enact the Canada Political Financing Act and to amend the Canada Elections Act and other Acts,” was listed on the notice paper that sets parliament’s agenda.
The usually well-disciplined Conservative caucus has been unusually fractious in recent months. Backbenchers have complained about the lengths to which the government has gone to silence MPs from speaking out on abortion in the House of Commons, and pushed for greater freedom for individual members to make statements without permission from party brass.
It’s impossible to know if the government now is going to water down the bill in response to caucus complaints, said NDP democratic reform critic Craig Scott.
“Whether the government originally put a watereddown bill on the notice paper or, conversely is now going to water down the bill, we will probably never know,” he said. “Unlike the Conservatives, opposition MPs have had no access whatsoever to the bill’s contents and so we will not be able to compare the eventual bill with the withdrawn bill.” Chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand has proposed a list of “urgent” legislative reforms needed to prevent the next election from being marred by fraudulent calls.
Mayrand stated this week that he has not been shown the Conservatives’ legislation, and although he met with Uppal on Monday, Elections Canada says the purpose of the meeting was merely to inform him of the government’s plans.
Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said Wednesday before question period that the decision to delay the bill “just doesn’t smell right.”
Goodale said he was concerned that the government appeared to have violated parliamentary privilege by revealing the bill to Conservative MPs before it was tabled in the House.
“This whole thing undermines the government’s whole credibility about how they are going to change the most fundamental law that guarantees free and fair elections,” he said. “They’re playing fast and loose with it for partisan purposes.”
After question period, Ottawa-Vanier Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger and NDP MP Craig Scott rose in the House to ask the Speaker to investigate whether a breach of privilege had taken place.
Conservative house leader Peter Van Loan replied that the Conservative caucus did not get an advance peek at the bill. “In the case of the caucus meeting, there were no draft copies circulated at any caucus meeting,” he said. “There were no copies on display. None of what he is alleging is something that in fact happened.”
At least one Conservative said he had been in the caucus meeting and hadn’t seen the legislation. “I have never seen the bill,” said Ontario MP Stephen Woodworth.
But opposition parties suggested that key details of the bill could have been shared without letting MPs see the actual text of the bill.
It is unclear what new provisions Uppal will include in the proposed Canada Political Financing Act. Most of Mayrand’s suggestions for changes addressed political party contact with voters and other issues raised by the robocalls investigations, but they were largely silent on election finance.
In their first year of government, the Conservatives slashed the maximum allowed political donation from $5,000 to $1,100 and later began phasing out the per-vote subsidy the parties receive. Both moves were thought to give the Conservatives an advantage by defunding rivals who are less adept at raising money.
Although the subsidy will be entirely eliminated by the next election, MPs’ campaigns still benefit from 60 per cent taxpayer-funded reimbursements of their election expenses.