The Fair Elections Act (French: Loi sur l’intégrité des élections) was a statute enacted by the Conservative government in the 41st Canadian Parliament.
It was introduced on February 4, 2014, by Minister of Democratic Reform Pierre Poilievre, was sent to the Senate with amendments on May 12, 2014, and received Royal Assent on June 19, 2014.
[14] An April 2014 Ipsos Reid poll found that 87 percent of Canadians believe identification and proof of address should have to be presented in order to vote.
"[15] In response to claims that the Conservatives were using the Fair Elections Act to "cheat the system", an April 2014 CTV News poll found that 61 percent did not believe this to be the case.
[18] The panel included Sheila Fraser, Ian Binnie, John Manley, Preston Manning, Bob Rae, and Hugh Segal.
[17] On April 16, 2014, Jeffrey Simpson, writing for the Globe and Mail, claimed the Act demonstrated a "them-against-us" mentality in the Conservative government fighting against Elections Canada.
[21] The bill would exempt from campaign spending limits the costs of fundraising efforts directed at people who had donated $20 or more in the previous five years.
This provision in the bill would likely have ended Elections Canada supported programs such as Student Vote, an initiative to boost civic literacy in children.
The amendments announced by the Conservatives on April 25 were described as removing restrictions on what the CEO can communicate, but not the limitations on funding voter participation programs.
While Democracy Watch noted this restriction would likely be struck down by a court, it was accused of putting a chill on groups that might otherwise carry out communications before the next election in 2015.
On April 10, 2014, Sun Media columnist Ezra Levant claimed most of the Fair Elections Act was administrative in nature, and that eliminating the use of vouching was perfectly reasonable.
[29] On April 13, 2014, Huffington Post Canada columnist J.J. McCullough said he supported the bill and that Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand had a vested interest in defending his organization's mandate, staff, and budget.
"[32] On April 15, 2014, Conservative MP James Rajotte said that while he personally supported the Fair Elections Act, he had been getting a lot of feedback from his constituents, "including the curtailing of vouching, an expense exemption for calls to donors who've previously donated money to a political party, partisan appointments of polling day officials and the curbing of the ability of Elections Canada to attempt to increase voter turnout.
Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski accused Mayrand of political activism, and of giving a "campaign-style speech" to Elections Canada staff in order to stir up dissent and opposition to the bill.