If adopted, the bill will, among other things, add two days advance voting. (Archive photo)
The Canadian Press
The Liberal government tabled a bill on Wednesday to update the Canada Elections Act, as part of its political pact with the New Party Democratic Party (NDP).
The Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions, Dominic LeBlanc, explained that the changes would give Canadians more ways to vote and would strengthen our measures to ensure the integrity of our elections.
Measures contained in the bill would add to our robust range of mechanisms aimed at combating ;foreign interference and disinformation, two growing phenomena in Western democracies.
A quote from Dominic LeBlanc, Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions
The bill, if passed, would add two days of early voting, make a campus voting program permanent and propose measures to allow voters to vote at any polling station. vote from their constituency.
It will also propose providing a way to vote on site for people living in long-term care facilities and improve the mail-in voting process.
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Dominic LeBlanc, Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions (Archive photo)
Mr. LeBlanc, who is also Minister of Public Safety, stressed that the amendments are the result of collaboration with the New Democrats.
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MP Daniel Blaikie negotiated the bill for the NDP. He was alongside Mr. LeBlanc during Wednesday's press briefing.
There are often Canadians who struggle to balance their professional and family obligations during #x27;one day and go to the polling station to be able to vote.
A quote from Daniel Blaikie, NDP MP
“That's why we thought it was very important to try to expand access and have more days on which Canadians could vote,” he added. Blaikie, who will leave his post as an MP at the end of the month to head to a job with the Premier of Manitoba.
The proposed law includes a study to expand federal elections to a three-day voting period rather than sticking to a single election day.
This does not correspond to the agreement between the Liberals and the New Democrats. The agreement stipulated that the parties would work together to make this a reality.
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Daniel Blaikie, MP of the New Democratic Party (Archive photo)
According to Mr. LeBlanc, the intention was that the elections would take place on a Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and that voters would be able to vote immediately from any polling station of their constituency.
However, Elections Canada has identified some reasonable concerns, including the difficulty in finding suitable locations for polling stations over a three-day period.
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Elections Canada presented us with thoughtful operational challenges. We believe officials need to be mandated by Parliament to come back with a clear timetable on how we can achieve this. We think this is a very reasonable objective.
A quote from Dominic LeBlanc, Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions
According to the terms of the support and confidence agreement, New Democrats support the Liberal minority government in key votes in the House of Commons in exchange for progress on shared priorities.
The agreement will reach its two-year anniversary this week.
Federal law requires that the next election be held no later than October 2025.
Mr. LeBlanc clarified that the intention is for parliamentarians to ensure that this legislation can be put in place as quickly as possible so that the changes are ready by then.
