Ottawa

How not to clean up elections

Legislation to fight fraudulent calls is now seven months past due

Thirteen months after agreeing to table such legislation within six months, the Harper government promised yesterday that tomorrow it would table electoral reform legislation that it didn’t review with the chief electoral officer, but the Globe now reports that the legislation will be further delayed because Conservative MPs want parts of the bill rewritten.

Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal has issued the following “urgent” statement.

“In our desire to rapidly incorporate recent recommendations made by the Chief Electoral Officer, we discovered a last minute issue in the proposed Elections Reform Act.  Therefore, we are postponing the introduction of legislation. We will take the time necessary to get the legislation right.”

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