Vote No
An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (demographic information)
The bill amends the Canada Elections Act to require qualifying registered political parties to publicly disclose diversity-related policies, plans, or reasons for not having them, and to post contact information for concerns. It directs the Chief Electoral Officer to collect voluntary self-identified demographic data from candidates, nomination contestants, and leadership contestants, and to publish anonymized reports after elections. Non-compliance with these new disclosure obligations is linked to existing procedures that can lead to a party’s non-voluntary deregistration process. The demographic reporting is confidential, anonymized, and updated regularly; key party disclosure obligations take effect two years after royal assent.
The bill adds compliance and administrative requirements without clear economic benefits or links to productivity, competitiveness, investment, or tax reform, creating modest bureaucratic friction that conflicts with Build Canada’s emphasis on freedom and efficiency.
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The bill focuses on party transparency and candidate demographics, with no clear linkage to national income or wealth creation.
It adds compliance and disclosure requirements for parties and empowers enforcement through deregistration processes, increasing bureaucracy rather than reducing it.
There is no direct effect on productivity or competitiveness; any indirect effects from more representative politics are speculative.
No provisions address trade, export capacity, or resource development pathways.
The bill does not affect investment incentives, innovation policy, or permitting/resource development.
It creates new data collection, analysis, and reporting duties for Elections Canada and ongoing disclosure obligations for parties, likely increasing administrative costs.
No tax measures are included.
The bill addresses electoral transparency rather than broad-based economic prosperity; impacts on prosperity are indirect and unclear.
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