Friday, April 18, 2014

Elections Canada's "conflict of interest"

Senator Linda Frum in the Globe and Mail:
“Elections Canada should not have a vested interest in recording a high voter turnout. That’s a conflict.”

I tweeted those words last week. They set off a Twitter storm that may yet contribute to a better understanding of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government’s effort to enhance the integrity of Canada’s voting system with the implementation of Bill C-23.

... Elections Canada is a bureaucracy with two missions: to ensure the integrity of the voting process and also to promote voter turnout. Those two missions are contradictory. You want the biggest vote total? Accept every ballot. You want to eliminate voter fraud? Eliminating improper ballots may reduce vote totals.

... In the war of words over Bill C-23, opponents have hurled the ugly accusation that this government is engaged in voter suppression. The truth is quite the opposite: It is those who corrupt the voting process – and who ought to be the focus of Elections Canada enforcement – who suppress the valid votes of lawful voters.

Frum with with BrianLilley:

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