Roundup: A possible missed deadline on election laws

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With a ticking clock over their heads – one whose useful time may already have passed – the government unveiled a new bill yesterday to reform the country’s electoral laws, to not only roll back changes that the previous government made around voter ID, that people complained made it harder for people to vote, while also enhancing some privacy safeguards, and limiting the writ period to 50 days while imposing more spending limits on pre-writ and third-party spending (so long as there’s a fixed election date). In the event that you thought there was already a bill on the Order Paper to roll back those Conservative changes, well, you’d be right, but they’ve abandoned it and rolled those changes into this new bill – a tactic they have been using with increasing frequency for whatever reason. Of course, Conservatives are already grousing that the Liberals are trying to make voter fraud easier by reducing the ID restrictions – never mind that they were never able to prove that there were problems with the pre-existing system, with one MP being forced to apologize for misleading the House after insisting that he saw people collecting voter registration cards when he actually just made the story up. But why ruin a narrative about the Liberals trying to game the next election?

The point about timing is going to be a tough one, because ideally these changes should have been made months ago if Elections Canada was to have enough time to ensure that they’ll be in effect for 2019 – and this also has to do with their need to migrate to a new data centre in advance of that election. Why the government couldn’t get this bill out months ago – or advance the previous bill on electoral measures, for that matter – is a question that they have yet to answer. As to whether Elections Canada can make these changes in time, the fact that there is now a bill that they can look to could mean that they’ve been saved in time – maybe – but we have yet to see how long it will take for them to bring it to debate and get it to the Senate, which has been keen to both amend bills and take their time doing it.

Meanwhile, Elections Canada is working with CSE and outside contractors to provide iPads to polling stations in the next election for things like voter registration so that they can eliminate some of the paper systems at advanced polls. In other words, trying to speed up the process electronically while still keeping the paper ballots that are so necessary to have proper accountability in our system.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Vancouver to boast about Amazon expanding their tech hub with an additional 3000 jobs but had to justify the Trans Mountain expansion.
  • The American government has decided to hold off on deciding about steel and aluminium tariffs for another month. (What uncertainty?)
  • The government plans to reject Senate amendments to its transportation bill related to the Air Passengers Bill of Rights, and some other railway provisions.
  • The government released a report citing that carbon pricing could eliminate 90 megatonnes of CO2by 2022, with a mere 0.1 percent of GDP economic impact.
  • Canadian officials are apparently trying to amend the Safe Third Country Agreement to apply to the whole Canada-US border, but US officials won’t cooperate.
  • Affidavits and requests for intervenor status are flooding into the Federal Court case challenging the Canada Summer Jobs grant attestation.
  • The recent tax changes in the US are having an outsized impact on dual citizens, particularly in Canada, who are suddenly facing huge tax bills.
  • Police are trying to figure out new training to deal with legal marijuana.
  • Civil service union PSAC threatens to run against the Liberals if they can’t get Phoenix fixed (as though it were that easy), which is starting to sound partisan.
  • Andrew Scheer plans to appear on Tout le monde en parle, which is something.
  • The NDP Supply Day motion to call for a papal apology for residential schools gets voted on today.
  • Economists from the Ecofiscal Commission offer better context for those PBO-generated carbon tax figures from last week, and resulting media confusion.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at how the Conservatives will try to force the government to turn over documents related to carbon tax plans.
  • John Ibbitson details the tough choice facing the Senate as to whether they should risk trying to amend the bill to expunge those convicted of gay and lesbian crimes.
  • Chantal Hébert portends doom for Martine Ouellet’s forthcoming leadership challenge, which may finally drive a stake in the Bloc.
  • Andrew Coyne is unimpressed with Andrew Scheer’s detail-free plans for how he will achieve GHG reductions without a carbon price.

Odds and ends:

Gas prices in BC are soaring, and while people blame the carbon tax, it’s actually because the refineries in the area are undergoing maintenance in a period of high crude prices.

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