As part of an agreement under his coalition government with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals are pushing for amendments of the Canada Elections Act (CEA). The Government of Canada updated its website with a news release on Wednesday detailing the proposed amendments to the act. Changes include expanding voting accessibility and pushing the election back by seven days, which has caused plenty of scrutiny on social media. The Liberals say they want to “ensure that the fixed date election in 2025 does not conflict with Diwali by moving it to the following Monday.”While the federal government has insisted the one-week proposed delay of election day, from its scheduled October 20 2025, to October 27 2025, is because of the holiday Diwali — few are buying it and pointing out it rather has to do with pensions of MPs who got elected during the 2019 election. Members of Parliament get a fully taxpayer funded pension when they reach 55 years of age if they serve a minimum of six years in the House of Commons. Under the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act, "a retiring allowance (pension) is payable to former Members who have contributed to the pension plan for a minimum of six years and who have attained age 55,” the parliament website states. .The Trudeau Liberals on Wednesday introduced Bill C-65 with a bullet list of proposed amendments, which also demands stretching the official election day over three days rather than one and allowing voters to vote at any polling station in their riding.However, Elections Canada said if the bill passes, those two changes wouldn’t go into effect until 2029, according to CBC. Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs said it's "certainly our hope" changes would go into effect sooner. "The principal objective was to improve access to ballots, improve the ability of Canadians to participate in the electoral system," he said, adding "Elections Canada identified some reasonable concerns.".The Liberals also want to change the ECA “to enhance citizens’ participation and trust in Canada’s electoral process,” the website states, and well as “build on the Government of Canada’s work to remove barriers to voting and encourage voter participation, better protect personal information, and further strengthen electoral protection measures, including against foreign interference.”In addition to the changes already mentioned, legislators hope the bill will increase voter participation by allowing voting by mail, making on-campus voting a permanent thing, offering on-site voting for long-term care residents, and allowing a support worker to assist people with disabilities in voting. .Further, the Trudeau Liberals are, of course, focused on “countering disinformation” when it comes to the elections, and have a plan for that too. “Safe and secure elections are essential to voter engagement and trust. The integrity of the electoral process will also be enhanced by changes to the CEA to help counter disinformation, the misuse of technologies and foreign interference,” the news release states. Changes include “ensuring that key protections against foreign interference are not limited to the election period; banning intentionally false or misleading statements about election activities or the voting process to disrupt an election or its results; prohibiting contributions through money orders, pre-paid gift cards and crypto-assets, whose source can be unknown or difficult to trace,” as well as “introducing new third-party contribution rules to increase transparency and mitigate dark or foreign funds from entering the system,” and guarding against “the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI).”
