Bill 7: Election Statutes Amendment Act , 2010
March 16 2010
Second Reading
Taken from the Alberta Hansard, March 16th, 2010
Dr. Swann: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It's my honour to
speak to Bill 7, the Election Statutes Amendment Act, 2010, an
important bill to be sure, an important amendment that's been a topic
of much conversation both in and out of the House, especially since
2008, the last provincial election, when there were so many irregularities,
so much uncertainty, so many instances of barriers to access
to the polling stations, misinformation, in some cases a sense of a
bias in those polling stations with some of the returning officers, and
then a lack of accountability around some of these issues. It's no
surprise we've now seen a court case launched in respect to this and
continued pressure on this government to actually step up and make
this a more authentic democratic process.
The essentials of a fair democratic process surely are known to all
members. It's no mystery that across the world democracy is being
embraced at very different levels of implementation. Surely, the
essential measures of a true democracy have to be examined, and
they have to do with the freedom to vote unhindered, uninfluenced,
and secret. They have to do with fairness to all, regardless of the
physical ability. They need to be accessible. They need to be
accountable for how they're being influenced by money or by
political power. They need to reflect the public will.
On all these counts we have been pressing this government for
many years, and it's now reached a point where government has
finally taken some action. I commend the government for some of
the changes that have been made, but they reflect a less ambitious
approach than we had hoped to move the ball forward for a leadership
role on democracy in the western world. It took a Supreme
Court decision and constant scrutiny of the Legislature to get these
reforms made.
I guess the question Albertans are asking is: what is it going to
take to get some of the other issues addressed such as fixed election
dates; the release of information on campaign financing for leadership
challenges; the need to reform our campaign financing, where
too much money is influencing the outcome of elections; the lack of
enforced access to certain buildings and institutions to campaign; the
ambiguity around special ballots to remedy some of the inaccurate
or inaccessible situations; the need to address inaccurate polling
information and contradictory information that people have received
in the past; and, fundamentally, the need to reflect the public will?
Again and again Albertans have asked: how is it that just over 50 per
cent of people support a particular party and the Legislature reflects
that party by 87 or more per cent? Clearly, this is not encouraging
people to recognize the importance of being involved, voting, and
taking the democratic process seriously.
We've made a number of recommendations in these areas and will
continue to do so, having recognized that some of the following are
positive changes in this bill amendment. It does, for example, make
the Chief Electoral Officer responsible for appointing returning
officers. We expect that to result in fewer biased returning officers
because the Conservative Party has less opportunity to identify and
name returning officers that support their particular political stripe.
It does provide for greater investigative powers of the Chief
Electoral Officer. We hope that will result in more active and
accountable results after elections.
It does provide now for anyone who wants to vote early to get
access to advance polls. This is positive. People have very busy
lives and complicated lives and should not be restricted from early
voting if that's their choice.
It does provide that candidates who run a campaign deficit must
dispose of that deficit and report to the Chief Electoral Officer when
and by which manner that deficit is retired. This is positive.
Wherever money is involved, there needs to be transparency and
accountability.
It does seek to improve the safeguards of the list of electors, a
positive change.
It does allow the Chief Electoral Officer to test new voting
technologies and to conduct pilot projects. We need to find better
ways, more reliable ways to get people's views and choices into the
electoral system.
Several other innovative concepts include looking at election
finance reforms. We hope that will result in significant changes to
the way campaigns are financed and will properly reflect the priority
of Albertans to see that money does not have such an influence on
electoral outcome.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I would re-emphasize that we on this side
feel very strongly about the need to be transparent about leadership
campaign financing and are puzzled why this would not be a priority
for a government that says that they want to be accountable and
transparent. We still look forward to seeing the leadership information
from the last Conservative leadership campaigns. That would
restore some level of confidence.
We would again encourage the government to look at fixed
election dates, which have been embraced by most other jurisdictions,
to try to address the question of fairness and to honour our
commitment to fair reflection of the public wishes.
With respect to trying to reflect more accurately the public will in
the Legislative Assembly and the numbers of members each party
has, we would also encourage the government to consider amending
this to include a citizens' assembly to examine other forms of voter
procedures, including proportional representation and the single
transferable vote and other such options that have been explored
across the country. There is an appetite in Alberta to look at other
ways to improve the accountability of government, the balance in
government, the responsiveness of government to the public wishes.
By not holding a citizens' assembly, it appears that this government
is entrenched in protecting its own interests, its own party interests,
and is not interested in advancing an accountable, transparent, fair,
and accessible democracy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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