Discussion · Government Orders
Christine Normandin Bloc Québécois
“I do not support the rule that bans people from signing more than one nomination form. The Chief Electoral Officer told us there is no way to enforce it. The other rules in this bill are already enough to fix the problem.”
“Mr. Speaker, to answer the parliamentary secretary’s question, it is important to remember that the measure has still not been adopted. In fact, it does not exist until the bill receives royal assent. We made these recommendations in committee proactively and asked the Chief Electoral Officer some questions directly. Who better to answer our questions than the Chief Electoral Officer himself? He confirmed that, in any case, there is no way to implement an enforcement mechanism to prevent someone from signing more than one nomination form. He told us very openly that he hoped this measure would act as a deterrent, but that, otherwise, we could not hope to solve the problem with this measure alone. Our argument is that all the other measures, such as the single official agent that the parliamentary secretary mentioned and the sanctions imposed on those who encourage someone to sign multiple nomination forms, would be enough. In other words, there is no added value in the requirement to have a single signature, although there are several disadvantages.”
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Mr. Speaker, to answer the parliamentary secretary’s question, it is important to remember that the measure has still not been adopted. In fact, it does not exist until the bill receives royal assent. We made these recommendations in committee proactively and asked the Chief Electoral Officer some questions directly. Who better to answer our questions than the Chief Electoral Officer himself? He confirmed that, in any case, there is no way to implement an enforcement mechanism to prevent someone from signing more than one nomination form. He told us very openly that he hoped this measure would act as a deterrent, but that, otherwise, we could not hope to solve the problem with this measure alone. Our argument is that all the other measures, such as the single official agent that the parliamentary secretary mentioned and the sanctions imposed on those who encourage someone to sign multiple nomination forms, would be enough. In other words, there is no added value in the requirement to have a single signature, although there are several disadvantages.