Document Information

Date: 1904-06-01
By: Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Canada, House of Commons Debates, 9th Parl, 4th Sess, 1904 at 3990 – 3994.
Other formats: TBA

3990

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES REPRESENTATION ACT.

Mr. T. CHASE CASGRAIN (Montmorency) moved the second reading of Bill (No. 117) to amend the Northwest Territories Representation Act.

Mr. LEMIEUX. I understand that the Bill is not printed in French.

Mr. CASGRAIN. I cannot understand why it is not, because it has been on the order paper over three weeks. I am inclined to think that it is, and that the order paper is mistaken. I would ask my hon. friend if possible not to press his objection, because this probably will be the last day on which I can bring the matter before the House. It is really a very important Bill. Its object is to introduce into the Northwest Territories Representation Act the provisions of the general election laws regarding the agents of candidates.

Mr. SIFTON. Where does the demand for the legislation come from ?

Mr. CASGRAIN. From the Northwest Territories. I do not undertake to say that I represent the Territories at all, but influential gentlemen from that part of the country have asked me to introduce this legislation. I do not think however that I need any special mandate. If I find in such an important statute as the election law of the Northwest Territories a section which evidently requires amendment, I do not think I require any distinct mandate from the Territories to propose an amendment. I am sure that my hon. friend the Minister of the Interior will concur in that view. I am sure he will agree that we have a general mandate here to represent the people and not only those parts of the country from which we come. If my hon. friend the Solicitor General will withdraw his objection, I think he will be convinced that he has done well. My own opinion is that the Bill is printed in French and that the error is in the order paper.

Mr. R. L. BORDEN. It was read the first time on the 19th of May.

Mr. CASGRAIN. Yes. Under the 48th section of the Northwest Territories Representation Act, the enumerator can issue as many certificates as he pleases, while under the general election law he can only issue a certain number. The general trend of legislation on this subject has been to limit, as much as possible, the number of certified agents, so that no personation, as far as possible, may take place. It is

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well understood that if a number of agents get these certificates, they can go into outlying districts where they are not known, and the danger of personation then becomes greater than if only a distinct number, fixed by the statute, were appointed by the proper officer. If hon. gentlemen will refer to section 61 of the Dominion Elections Act they will find that :

The returning officer, on the request of any elector entitled to vote at one of the polling stations, who is appointed deputy returning officer or poll clerk, or who is named the agent of any of the candidates for a polling station other than the one where he is entitled to vote, shall give to such elector a certificate that such deputy returning officer, poll clerk or agent is entitled to vote at such election at the polling station where such elector is stationed during the polling day.

Then it goes on to say :

2. The returning officer shall not grant such certificate for more than two agents for each candidate at or for each polling station.
3. Every person so appointed deputy returning officer, poll clerk or agent, and claiming to vote by virtue of such certificate, shall, if required, before voting, take the oath in the form R.
4. Such oath, with the corresponding certificate of the returning officer, shall be filed with the deputy returning officer at the polling station where the person taking it has voted.’

The object of this Bill is simply to amend the 48th section of the Northwest Territories Act so, as to make it as nearly as possible similar to the section in the general Act. The Bill says :

Every enumerator shall attach to each of the two copies of the voters’ list which are by section 30 of this Act required to be posted up by him within each polling division, a written notice which shall be signed by him and shall designate a place and time where and when electors may conveniently find him during at least two consecutive hours on every day, except Sunday, of the eight days next before the polling day, for the purpose of applying to him for such certificates.

I am told on very good authority that this has happened in several instances, and I am not imputing any motives to anybody. The enumerator, after giving certificates to a certain number of gentlemen to represent a certain candidate, then disappeared, so that the agents or representatives of the other candidates could get no certificate at all.

So there are two dangers in the law as it stands to-day—the danger that a great many certificates may be given, thereby increasing the opportunity for personation ; and the unfairness resulting from the law, inasmuch as the enumerator, by thus disappearing, can prevent the other candidate from getting certificates and being represented at the poll. Now, if that is so, it appeals to the fairness of hon. gentlemen opposite whether it would not be better, under the circumstances, to assimilate the law that is in force

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in the Northwest Territories to the General Elections Act, and make it incumbent upon the enumerator who gives these certificates to be at a stated place during stated hours for the eight days which precede the polling, so that he may give certificates to the agents of both candidates. That is the first provision of the Bill.

Mr. SIFTON. My hon. friend (Mr. Casgrain) has the statute before him. Will he say who are entitled to receive certificates ?

Mr. CASGRAIN. The deputy returning officer, the poll clerk and any agent. That is where the difficulty comes in. I understand there is no difficulty about the deputy returning officer or the poll clerk, but there is difficulty about the agent. All we ask is that the enumerator be put in such a position that he will be obliged to give certificates to those on either side who ask for them ; and, secondly, that he will give only three certificates. The General Election law says two certificates, but this provides for three. I remember that in the provincial legislature of Quebec, when this question came up, it was agreed on both sides that it was a wise provision to limit, as much as possible, the number of certificates that might be given. And in the election law that was passed by that House when I had the honour of sitting there and of proposing the measure, two certificates were allowed to be given by the deputy returning officer to the representatives of the candidates. Here, owing to the different circumstances in the Northwest Territories, the Bill allows three.

Mr. R. L. BORDEN. And they to be given by the enumerator.

Mr. CASGRAIN. Yes. That is another circumstance made necessary by the condition of affairs in the Northwest Territories. The Bill goes on to say :

(c) the certificates issued by each enumerator shall be numbered consecutively in the order of issue ;

(d) the certificates shall not be issued in blank.

This is to do away with another source of fraud. Certificates in many instances, before the General Election Act was passed, were issued in blank, so that anybody could get them. In fact, the agent of the candidate or, sometimes, the candidate himself, went about with blank certificates giving them to anybody, thereby again increasing the danger of impersonation.

(e) the certificate shall contain in writing the name of the person to whom it is issued, and shall state that he is a qualified elector, the polling division in which he is entitled to vote, and, if he is a deputy returning officer, agent or poll clerk, the polling station for which he is appointed.

Section 2 of the Act provides that this certificate shall be filed with the returning

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officer, and that an entry shall be made in the poll-book opposite the voter’s name if the deputy returning officer or poll clerk or agent has voted. There is no political controversy about this matter. The House, having, in 1900, adopted the system set forth in the present Bill, has absolutely no reason for rejecting this measure. It places both parties on the same footing ; and I should be very loath to believe for an instant that hon. gentlemen opposite would wish to take advantage of the unsatisfactory condition of the law to-day. All we ask is that the law which applies to other parts of the Dominion should apply to the Northwest Territories.

Hon. CLIFFORD SIFTON (Minister of the Interior). I had no intention, in addressing the question I did to my hon. friend (Mr. Casgrain) as to the source of complaint in regard to the present law, to suggest that any member of the House had not a perfect right to introduce a Bill to amend any public statute. I was asking for information, to ascertain whether or not, as a matter of fact, complaints had been made as to the operation of the present law, and, if so, from what source those complaints had come. I asked that question, because, so far as I am concerned, my attention had not been drawn to any complaints made as to the operation of the present law. The representation law for the Northwest Territories, as the House is aware, is not the same as the law which governs the rest of the Dominion. Parliament has thought well that a different law should be in force there, because of the fact that, owing to the sparseness of population and the extent of the districts, the ordinary law as respects the compilation of voters’ lists could not be conveniently applied. There have been some modifications of the election law made since 1896 in the direction of protecting the opposition, or the party not in control of the official machinery, and considerable improvement has been made in that respect. I do not think that any objection could be taken to an amendment which has for its purpose to limit or prevent the possibility of fraud. But, for myself, not being aware that my hon. friend (Mr. Casgrain) intended to move his Bill this evening, I have not had the opportunity to give the matter the consideration, in consultation with the members of the Northwest Territories, that I would like to have given, in order to ascertain how the law has worked. I would not like to express a positive opinion against the proposal of my hon. friend, nor would I, without looking into the matter, express an opinion in favour of it. I move the adjournment of the debate, so that the matter can be considered at a future time.

Mr. CASGRAIN. I would have no objection to the motion of my hon. friend (Mr. Sifton), and I understand that the reasons he has given for the adjournment of the debate are quite plausible. But I am under

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the impression that this is the last day when public Bills can be brought up by private members, unless they can be brought up on Monday.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER. They can be brought up on Monday.

Mr. CASGRAIN. Under these circumstances, I have no objection to the motion.

Motion (Mr. Sifton) agreed to, and debate adjourned.