DEMOCRATIC REFORM: Strengthening Accountability

May 14, 2007

After just 14 months in Parliament, the Conservative government has already implemented many of the democratic reforms advocated by my constituents for the past 15 years.

For example, we have instituted fixed election dates; banned corporate and union contributions to political parties; implemented a five-year ban on lobbying for ministers and others; protected whistleblowers; and enhanced the ability of the Auditor General to follow the money to more effectively scrutinize spending.

May 7-11 was Democratic Reform week and the Government commemorated this event with an aggressive democratic reform agenda.

REPRESENTATION BY POPULATION

This Conservative government is also delivering on an election commitment to restore the principle of representation by population in the faster growing provinces such as Alberta and BC while protecting the seat counts of provinces with slower growing populations.

The Democratic Representation Bill would correct the significant under-representation of some provinces in the House of Commons by increasing the number of seats for those provinces.

For example, a Member of Parliament (MP) from Alberta or British Columbia represents an average of 10,000 more people than an MP in another province.

Under the new legislation, Alberta would receive four extra seats and British Columbia would receive five extra seats. At the same time, no province would lose seats.

SENATE REFORM

Our law on fixed election dates (C-16) recently received Royal Assent. Unfortunately, when it comes to making the Liberal-dominated Senate more accountable, things are not going quite as well. The Liberal-dominated Senate, continues to block passage of a bill that would fix Senate terms to eight years (S-4). Additionally, Liberal MPs have stalled on allowing elections for senators to replace those who are forced to leave the Senate because they have reached the age of 75 and, unbelievably, the Liberal-dominated Senate has held up for almost a year a two-paragraph bill (C-43) which would replace lifetime appointments with eight-year terms.

EXPANDED VOTING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CANADIANS

Canada’s new Government is also moving forward on democratic reform by expanding voting opportunities for Canadians. Our Government has introduced legislation that will make it easier for Canadians to vote. The bill will create two new advance polling days: on Sunday, a week before Election Day; and on Sunday, the day right before the election.

LOAN ACCOUNTABILITY

The Government is moving forward on its commitment to eliminate the influence of big money in the political process with tough new regulations on political loans. This Conservative government fought the last federal campaign on a commitment to eliminate the influence of rich, wealthy individuals from the political process. In fact, our first piece of legislation after the election established strict limits on donations to address just that issue. However, the Liberals found a way around that law and, during the Liberal leadership race last fall, candidates accepted over $3 million in loans. Stéphane Dion himself was lent almost half a million dollars from a handful of wealthy individuals with no guarantee that they needed to be repaid. Therefore, our recent Act on Loan Accountability will:

• mandate the public disclosure of all loans to political parties, riding associations, candidates, and leadership contestants. Information such as interest rates and the identity of lenders and loan guarantors would be accessible through the Elections Canada web site;

• dictate that larger loans can only be made by financial institutions (at commercial rates of interest) and other political entities;

• hold riding associations responsible for unpaid loans taken out by their candidates – ensuring candidates cannot walk away from unpaid loans;

• ban unions and corporations from making loans to political parties, in line with the contribution rules contained in the FAA; and

• restrict personal loans to the annual donation limit established by the FAA ($1,100 in 2007).

OTHER REFORMS UNDERWAY

The measures outlined above are just the latest in a long list of changes this Conservative government has made to the political process, making it more accountable, open and democratic. Since being elected we have also:

• banned corporate and union donations to political parties;

• established a five-year ban on lobbying by Ministers, their aides and senior public servants; and

• strengthened the ability for the Auditor General to “follow the money.”

It is clear that, after 13 years of Liberal inaction and corruption, and despite their continued attempts to stand in the way of democratic reform, the Conservative government is taking action to restore accountability through democratic reforms.