Justin Trudeau has received a significant amount of flak over his recent decree that incoming Liberal MPs after the next election will be expected to be explicitly pro-choice on the abortion issue. This weekend, the Liberal Party released a very clear-headed e-mail: “I had an extraordinary example in a father
Continue readingTag: Liberal Party of Canada
Maple-Flavoured Politics: Degrees of Openness in Party Nominations
Before launching into this post, I feel the need to provide full disclosure. I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating here: I joined the Liberal Party of Canada a few days after the 2011 election. I had been a donor to the party for two or three years before
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy Canada For May Day, With Bananas
A few days ago, I wrote about picking May Day as a good time for Occupy Vancouver to reboot itself and catch up with the Occupy Movement’s worldwide #WaveOfAction. But I think that idea can be bigger, it can be a day for all of Occupy Canada to reboot. Here’s
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Is Your Job Bullshit?
Work should be liberating, not enslaving! It’s Saturday so it’s the weekend so you’re not working. But that’s just an incorrect hypothesis. Lots of people are working this weekend. In fact, weekends don’t mean much to billions of people. They are a luxury, relatively speaking. But your job may be
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Canada’s Seeks the OECD Record for Income Inequality
America: Where the rich get richer faster than in so many other places! Yesterday I wrote about the rebooting of the Occupy Movement in 10 days. I’m very excited. And to help you understand why this is such a big deal, especially in Canada, it’s important to see how Canada is
Continue readingAutonomy For All: Canada Moving Toward US Style Partisan Administered Elections
I am by no means well read on the nitty gritty of Canadian federal elections, but this strikes me as an incredibly bad idea: [Former B.C. Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld] says Section 44 of the government’s new legislation would allow all central polling supervisors to be appointed by a
Continue readingAutonomy For All: Canada Moving Toward US Style Partisan Administered Elections
I am by no means well read on the nitty gritty of Canadian federal elections, but this strikes me as an incredibly bad idea:
[Former B.C. Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld] says Section 44 of the government’s new legislation would allow all central polling supervisors to be appointed by a riding’s incumbent candidate or the candidate’s party.
“It’s completely inappropriate in a democracy, ” said Neufeld.Under current legislation, central poll supervisors are appointed by returning officers, who are hired by Elections Canada. The supervisors are put in place at polling stations to make sure voting unfolds smoothly.
What could possiblay go wrong with such a well conceived scheme? The government’s answer?
But a spokeswoman for the minister of state for democratic reform says the Elections Act already allows for candidates and parties to appoint other polling station officers.
“This is the case for revising agents in s.33, deputy returning officers in s.34, poll clerks in s.35 and registration officers in s.39 of the existing Canada Elections Act,” said Gabrielle Renaud-Mattey.
Renaud-Mattey also points out that the idea was recommended by the Commons procedure and House affairs committee and that the returning officer can refuse to appoint the central polling supervisor recommended by the candidate or party.
Nowhere in here do we see an actual reason for doing this. That other elections officers might be picked in a similar manner doesn’t tell us whether this is a good idea. The CPS is the chief official at each polling facility, overseeing however many deputy returning officers (who run each individual “poll”) there are, as well as more general issues to that site. Whatever the merits of letting the incumbent party pick the DROs, having the whole operation overseen by a non-partisan appointee who reports to Elections Canada (and owes nothing to the local incumbent party) is self-evidently wise.
That a commons committee dominated by Conservative MPs recommended this is similarly unpersuasive.
The bizarre thing is that the appointment power of Central Poll Supervisors was not among the issues raised by anyone to the government or the Commons’ committee on Procedure & House Affairs. It is a solution in search of a problem. Even if you delve into the actual Committee report on matter, it really appears like Elections Canada asked to solve a different problem (not enough Elections officers supervising) and the Committee just interjected “Great, how about we also let the parties pick these people?” Section I.3:
The Chief Electoral Officer proposes to amend the Act to authorize returning officers to hire additional election officers in situations where the Act does not grant this power. In the last general election, the CEO used his power of adaptation of the Act to enable returning officers to hire additional election officers including poll clerks, registration officers, information officers and central poll supervisors. These additional election officers were required mainly for advance polling stations. The authority to hire additional election officials has been necessitated in recent years by the increasing voter turnout at advance polling stations.
[…]
The Committee, however, raised a related issue in the course of its consideration of this recommendation: permitting candidates or electoral district associations to nominate those individuals who may be selected by returning officers to perform the functions of central poll supervisors, given the important role played by these officials.
Wait, what? What is the argle bargle reasoning here? It’s almost completely non-sequitur to the issue Elections Canada raised (the need for more officials), and the logic is baffling: “given the important role played by these officials.” Yes, the role is important, why does that make partisan control a good idea?
The whole raison d’etre of having a thing like Elections Canada is to ensure the government of the day cannot easily manipulate election outcomes. Everything that moves away from that goal must be viewed with extreme skepticism. This isn’t quite Katherine Harris giving the 2000 election to George Bush, but it’s a couple steps in that direction.
It is true the Returns Officers (still picked by Elections Canada) can reject particular nominees under the proposed changes, but that puts the onus on Elections Canada to find reason to reject specific individuals. The practical reality is this won’t happen very often, as most partisan shenanigans will tend to fly under the radar, and is entirely reactive to people who have behaved in sufficiently egregiously partisan ways while acting in election oversight capacities.
Even relatively honest people so appointed are now aware their role as CPS is a result of the incumbent party picking them, so their loyalty goes that way, rather than to Elections Canada. If they want to be picked again (or have other ambitions in that party) they will need to do a “good” job by the party’s reckoning. I realize nearly everyone working on elections has personal opinions and many may be loyal party members, but that is still materially different from getting your election job as a result of partisan loyalty. It’s safe to assume the people picked will not be picked because of their ability to run a clean election as the top criteria.
In what I am sure is an unrelated matter, the Committee supports increasing the pay rates for Elections workers & officers.
What’s doubly alarming is that neither the NDP or Liberals, who have representation on this committee dissented over this point. The NDP’s report only disputes 3 unrelated issues, and the Liberals didn’t seem to even issue a dissent.
I hope I am missing some great countervailing control that makes partisan manipulation of election conduct still a very difficult and risky proposition but I’m not seeing any merits in this. At the very least it just creates a system of partisan patronage, even if the people picked do their jobs with reasonable honesty, the prospect for graft is real.
I doubt most Canadians will know that when they go to vote in 2015, all the leading officials at their polling place are partisan picks. It certainly changes how I view the process of voting, and undermines confidence in the system.
Continue readingAutonomy For All: Canada Moving Toward US Style Partisan Administered Elections
I am by no means well read on the nitty gritty of Canadian federal elections, but this strikes me as an incredibly bad idea: [Former B.C. Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld] says Section 44 of the government’s new legislation would allow all central polling supervisors to be appointed by a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: NDP-Grit coalition to defeat Rob Anders? Unlikely! This is a Tory civil war
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, left, glares at Rob Anders, far right (as it were), Canada’s Worst MP, as challenger Ron Liepert, centre, with an unidentified vole who is not authorized to speak on the record, look on. Actual Alberta politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated, but pretty much. Below:
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why I voted for Jim Coutts in 1984 and probably would again, a lesson in retail politics
Jim Coutts, son of the Great Plains and, as long-time principal secretary to Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau, once said to be the second most powerful person in Canada. (University of Lethbridge photo.) Below: The Lancaster bomber arrives in Nanton, inconveniently huge, but still too small to house a roadside
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: The brutal lessons of 2013.
2013 has been a rather tough year for this blogger. I ran for the Vice Presidency of the Alberta Liberal Party and was unsuccessful. Quite quickly I found I had little support in Edmonton and that I had to work harder to earn the trust of people. It was truly a
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Justin Trudeau “ladies night” event “condescending and patronizing”
Canadian women, including politicians, are dismissing Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s “ladies night” event in Toronto as “condescending and patronizing”. The post Justin Trudeau “ladies night” event “condescending and patronizing” appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Halloween 2013: a meditation on power
Prime Minister Stephen Harper just one year ago. Actual Canadian prime ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Senator Mike Duffy and former Harper cabinet member Jim Prentice. Last Halloween, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper went trick ’n’ treating, he was monarch of all he surveyed. This year, he’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Coming soon, perhaps, a legitimate reason for Canadians to thank Conrad Black!
Linda McQuaig addresses the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees annual convention in 2008. (AUPE photo taken by Daryl Dyck.) Below: Conrad Black in the uniform of the Governor General’s Foot Guard, and not, as you may have thought, that of a security guard. It occurs to me that we Canadians
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: The State Of The LPC
Last evening Jeff Jedras was good enough to organize a call between LPC poohbahs, ably represented in this case by MP Dominic Leblanc, and a number of Lib friendly bloggers. The idea was to discuss the state of the game on the eve of today’s throne speech. This is my take
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Dinner with Justin Trudeau: Gimmick or Doing Politics Differently?
“Have dinner with me, Susan.” What a charming invitation. Too bad it’s part of a fundraising campaign directed at 300,000 supporters of the federal Liberal party. But wait…let’s think about this for a moment. For a $5.00 donation, Ms Soapbox and four of her closest friends and relatives get a
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Nice catch, JT
A surprise announcement yesterday from Justin Trudeau and the LPC, with a new military adviser on the LPC team, and possibly one that will run for election in 2015: Retired general Andrew Leslie, former commander of Canadian army..has agreed to co-chair an advisory council on international affairs for the Liberal
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Mulcair’s Beard Is Not The Point
There are days that I am positive that the “image consultants” who hover around our political leaders don’t have a clue what they are talking about. Today, we find the discussion of the week is whether or not Mulcair should shave off his beard. But media consultant Barry McLoughlin told HuffPost that
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MexAmeriCanada? We Are Not Thinking Creatively Enough
MexAmeriCanada doesn’t have to be our future. I think I’m guilty of being a bit slow and uncreative. The bogeyman of deep integration, North American Union, the United States-ification of Canada, the United States OF Canada, and Canada becoming states #51-60 plus three more protectorates is just too simplistic. We
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MexAmeriCanada, Version 2013
Welcome to the United States of MexAmeriCanada. Represent! I was just thinking a few days ago how I haven’t used the MexAmeriCanada tag for a while. Did I cause this to happen, in some cosmic kind of way? In the old days it was Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin
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