SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Lindsay Mathyssen

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the Subcommittee on Review of Parliament’s involvement with associations and recognized Interparliamentary groups Deputy House leader of the New Democratic Party
  • NDP
  • London—Fanshawe
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 66%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $131,911.16

  • Government Page
  • May/31/24 1:13:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member's point of view is very important, in terms of the rural side and the disenfranchisement of those specific voters. They do not have the same access that other Canadians might have. That is key. That is one of the fundamental principles of a democratic election process. Ensuring that we have an expansion of advance days to vote is a really big part of that. One thing that I would like to see, which has been floated, is for people to be able to vote wherever they are in the electoral district, no matter which polling station they have access to. I think that would take a lot of work. I think we need to put the resources into our Elections Canada office to do that kind of research and make that positive change for Canadians, no matter where they live and no matter who they are, within the democratic system.
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  • May/31/24 1:09:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is exactly one of the reasons we are happy to move forward with this bill and make the needed changes. In fact, one of those changes, to put the election day back to the original date, would mean more advance polling or voting days. That is why we want to see the election expanded to three days. In the end, it would provide more opportunities. We believe we would not have to argue so much about the end date if we had more days, more flexibility and more options for people to vote throughout the election process. This is about expanding that even more, and I am fully in support of it.
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  • May/30/23 5:02:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for allowing me to bring forward one of the points that my brilliant colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke raised earlier. We are asking for the government and for a committee of this Parliament to do the work that is necessary. If we were to call an election right now, we would be going in with the exact same rules that we have now and potentially the exact same problems that we have now. Therefore, if we are able to come together to do the work necessary to ensure our institutions are protected and those democratic processes are protected, then we can have the faith of Canadians in this place to go forward with an election free from interference.
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