Elections Canada contradicts minister, says no consultation on elections bill

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OTTAWA – A plan by the Harper government to overhaul Elections Canada is off to a rough start even before the legislation is to be introduced Tuesday morning.

Pierre Poilievre, the minister responsible for democratic reform, tells the House of Commons that he consulted with chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand before the bill was drafted.

But a spokesman for Mayrand at Elections Canada says that’s just not true and that he was neither consulted nor given any heads-up about what the proposed changes entail.

The Conservative party has had a difficult relationship with Elections Canada since at least 2006, when the elections watchdog caught the party over-spending its election campaign limit by more than $1 million.

Poilievre led the government’s fierce denials for years before the party finally pleaded guilty in September 2011, five years and two elections later.

Opposition critics now say they are deeply concerned that the Conservatives will use the reform exercise as a way of “gutting” Elections Canada.

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