Report
The proposed “Fair Elections Act” legislation will make it difficult for citizens to vote by muzzling Elections Canada and by being biased in favor of the Conservative part. The bill is an severe attack on democracy since it eliminates forms of voting that are effective in wooing voters. The legislation threatens methods used by Elections Canada such as vouching that enabled 120,000 Canadians to vote and prolonged use of Voter Identification Cards (VIC).
This law is a tab on democracy that aims at disenfranchising low income earners and people with transient lives. The bill also forbids the chief election officer from conducting civic education to groups, such as the youth, that are unlikely to vote. In addition, the bill makes it easy for people with money to influence elections by increasing the donation upper limit and creating ambiguities to party fundraising expenses.
Rick Mercer argues that the bill makes it illegal to inspire young people to vote. He says that Canadians do not vote due to the bad state of politics.
According to him, voter turnout is at the lowest level in history, which proof enough that encouraging people to cast ballot does not work. This argument does not put into account increased number of voters who were registered, which made the turnout lower, but with a higher number than before.
In Conclusion, Canadians should vouch for electoral reforms in order to avoid fraud and prevent people with money from altering Canadian elections and guarantee that all Canadians exercises their democratic right as voters. This right should be protected by all Canadians and they should not accept any bill prevent them from being encouraged to vote.
Work Cited
Huffington Post. Fair Elections Act Will Make It Harder For Canadians to Vote, 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
Hill Times. Feds didn’t like Election Canada’s 2008 election Campaign ‘vote, shape your world,’ 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
