Brace yourself for a tumultuous three weeks in Parliament

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Brace yourself for a tumultuous three weeks in Parliament

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By Karl Nerenberg | May 1, 2014

Parliament is back in business, until the next break three weeks from now, and one senses that the government is anxious to push through a hamper full of legislation in a very short time.

The opposition, on the other hand, are concerned that the Conservatives are pushing too hard and in undue haste on a number of fronts, while dragging their feet on some major priorities for Canadians.

Here's what's happening.

1. The Fair Elections Act

This bill is still before the Procedure and House Affairs Committee, which is doing clause-by-clause examination. That examination includes considering the series of major amendments the government has just proposed.

Those amendments are a surprise, coming from this normally obdurate and arrogant government.

Until very recently, Harper's Democratic Reform Minister, Pierre Poilievre, responded to any criticism of his bill with near-vicious ad hominem attacks on his most prominent critics (among them the former Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, and current Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand). His proposed changes do not go nearly far enough, but they do answer a number of key expert and opposition concerns.

The government will now allow folks to vote with only one piece of ID, even without address, if another qualified voter vouches for them. That will allow most for whom the proposed total abolition of vouching would have denied the franchise to vote.

As well, the government has now made it clear that the Chief Electoral Officer will have freedom of speech, and will have the right to warn Canadians if, for instance, he gets reports of phony calls purporting to come from his office.

The Conservatives have also scrapped that complete legislative non-sequitur, the loophole that would have exempted from spending limits all campaign activities supposedly directed at those who donated $20 or more to a political party. From the very day this bill was introduced, we have been asking, in this space, what such a measure had to do with assuring a "fair election."

The answer now seems to be: "nothing."

There are other significant changes -- all of them the result of the mountain of criticism the bill has received and the dogged and persistent NDP opposition, led by the party's Democratic Reform Critic, Craig Scott.

As to what Poilievre's amendments do not do...

The Conservatives still refuse to give the Elections Commissioner one of the most necessary tools he needs to investigate criminal fraud: the power to compel recalcitrant witnesses to testify.

And they still insist on moving the Commissioner out of Elections Canada and into the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. That latter official complained to the House Committee that he had never been consulted on this idea -- and did not think it was a particularly good one.

This fight, it seems, is far from over.

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