New “Fair Elections Act” to raise political donation limits: reports

Pierre Poilievre, the minister of state for democratic reform, will be unveiling the federal government's "Fair Elections Act" on Tuesday morning.

Details of the highly anticipated bill, however, seem to have already been leaked to two prominent Ottawa-reporters.

According to one, the new legislation will overhaul Elections Canada and specifically the administration of investigations launched by the electoral watchdog.

"[The new bill] will rein in the power of the Chief Electoral Officer when it comes to launching investigations into violations of electoral law; and will end the practice of “vouching” for voters who don’t have proof of identification at the ballot box, according to sources who have seen the draft bill," the National Post's John Ivison wrote.

"The new bill will propose to remove the decision on whether investigations should be launched from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand, and hand it to a new panel independent of the government and Elections Canada."

The Post and the Globe and Mail are also reporting that the political contribution limit — the amount of money an individual can donate to a federal political party in a given year — will increase from the current $1,200.

An independent democracy watchdog says raising the donor limit is a mistake.

"Raising the limit on donations is the most dangerously undemocratic and unethical change that the government could make," Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch told Yahoo Canada News.

"The limit is already much higher than an average voter can afford, and raising the limit will only allow wealthy people to buy more influence than they already can, and it will also lead to more corruption like happened in Quebec because it will make it easier for businesses and other organizations to funnel large donations to the parties through their executives and employees."

[ Related: Elections Canada chief in dark about election reform bill ]

The Tories originally promised a new Elections Act in 2012 during the height of the robocall scandal where voters in several ridings across the country alleged that they were misdirected to non-existent voting booths.

The opposition parties, however, are little weary of the Tories reforming the act that governs an institution with whom they've had a rocky relationship.

The Conservatives have battled the watchdog for years about the 'in and out' affair, the national ad buy loophole which the Tories finally plead guilty to in 2011. They've also called-out Elections Canada for not aggressively going after Liberal and NDP leadership candidates who still haven't paid back their debts.

"It's ominous ... given their track record with Elections Canada, which has been confrontational right from Day 1, and then resentful. It now may have moved to vindictive," deputy Liberal leader Ralph Goodale told the Canadian Press.

"It's significant that they've prepared this [bill] without any serious discussion with anyone at Elections Canada. I think everyone would be well advised to read the fine print with a great deal of care."

[More to come]

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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