The province is extending voting rights to prisoners and changing the way returning officers are appointed in an effort to avoid the appearance of political influence but one democratic renewal group is saying changes to Alberta’s election rules are “rather timid.”
The province announced last week that it was extending the vote to prisoners, in accordance with a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Also the chief electoral officer will appoint returning officers rather than asking the government to appoint them. Returning officers will then be able to directly hire enumerators, eliminating the need to get recommendations from constituency associations.
Changing this appointment process is a “real good move,” said Jack Flaherty, former Alberta Liberal MLA and current president of the party’s local constituency association.
“The old way, the sitting MLA was the one that had something to say about who got the job, I believe,” Flaherty said.
The government introduced Bill 7 last week. It also seeks to:
• require third party advertising to disclose financial backers;
• broaden the investigative powers of the chief electoral officer;
• open advance polls to anyone who wants to vote early;
• require candidates who run a campaign deficit to retire that deficit and report to the chief electoral officer;
• increase safeguards for the list of electors;
• update the types of information voters can present at polling stations;
• allow for the exploration of new voting technologies and to conduct a pilot project that will see byelection polls open at 7 a.m.
Three changes the province isn’t bringing in are fixed elections, the ability to vote at any polling station and financial disclosure rules for leadership campaigns.
“We have achieved a balance between updated and streamlined processes and maintaining the integrity of the system,” said Justice Minister Alison Redford.
Flaherty wondered about the absence of disclosure rules around leadership campaigns.
“There should be no ifs and buts where the money came from so that no one is favoured,” he said.
Redford said that such changes are better addressed by an all-party committee because the rules will affect all parties. She’s referred the issue to the policy field committee on public safety and services.
“I would have liked to have seen fixed election dates in there but I know that issue has been decided.”
St. Albert MLA Ken Allred would have liked to see fixed election dates. He first suggested the move in a 2008 private members’ bill that the government didn’t support.
“I’ve lost that battle,” said Allred. “There’s only a few provinces across Canada that don’t have it now. It’ll come.”
Another idea not included in the legislation is proportional representation, a voting idea that aims to more accurately tie the number of legislature seats to the percentage of popular vote.
With the “first-past-the-post” system it’s possible to win a majority of seats with a minority of votes, said Phil Elder, co-chair of the Alberta Democratic Renewal Project, which is trying to get Albertans to embrace proportional representation and push the province in that direction.
“This means that other very credible and assured policy views are not represented in the house at all,” said Elder.
He knows proportional representation isn’t an easy sell. Similar efforts led to referenda in B.C., P.E.I. and Ontario but all failed. Also Alberta’s ruling Tories have shown no appetite for change of this sort.
“I think that most governments don’t want to change the system that they clearly benefit from, so you’re fighting uphill,” Elder said.
