A Liberal MP is suggesting the party will get rid of an amendment to the Elections Canada Act that would have pushed the next election date back by a week, a change the Conservatives have argued was proposed to secure pensions for dozens of MPs.
“There are over 40 amendments in our amendment package that deal specifically with the date of the election,” said Liberal MP Ryan Turnbull during a Procedure and House Affairs
Committee meeting on Dec. 3, adding that the Liberals “will support the change to that.”
NDP MPs also said they would support eliminating the clause.
Conservative MPs had raised concerns that an amendment to
Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act, would change the date of the next federal election from Oct. 20, 2025, to Oct. 27, 2025. The Tories argued that the move would ensure parliamentary pensions for dozens of MPs who were first elected in 2019, many of whom are not forecast to be re-elected in polling projections.
The
Members of Parliament Pension Plan states that MPs 55 years of age and older qualify after six years of service. The original election date would mean MPs elected on Oct. 21, 2019, would fail to qualify.
While section 1 of the Elections Act stipulates that a general election must be held on the third Monday of October, the Liberals have said a date adjustment is needed because many communities will be celebrating the holiday of Diwali at that time.
During the
Dec. 3 committee meeting, Conservative MP Michael Cooper called the bill a “cynical attempt to secure pensions for soon-to-be defeated Liberal and NDP MPs under the guise of an elections bill.”
“Despite the explanations that they offered [for the date change] having no credibility and not making any sense, they say unequivocally that the date has nothing to do with pensions. It was just a coincidence. Come on. No one believes [this],” he added.
Elections Canada
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault told the committee on Nov. 21 that he did not support changing the next election date as it would conflict with the territorial election in Nunavut, potentially compromising Election Canada’s ability to serve electors in the territory.
Dominic LeBlanc, minister of public safety, democratic institutions and intergovernmental affairs, previously said the government was open to not including the election date provision in the bill.
“If the committee decides to change that date, return the date seven days earlier, that’s entirely up to the committee,” Leblanc told the House Affairs Committee on
Nov. 7. “The controversy is such that if people want to change the date, that’s fine.”
At the same meeting, NDP MP Lisa Marie Barron also said her colleague had previously put forth an amendment to the bill in Parliament to get rid of the clause moving back the election date, but the Conservatives had tried to “have the entire bill completely delayed.”
Bill C-65 would lead to many changes to the Elections Canada Act, such as restricting foreign funding of third parties, putting in place measures to remove barriers for certain groups of electors, codifying Elections Canada’s “vote on campus” service, and reducing the number of signatures required for nominations from 100 to 75.
