Bill C-2
If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.
|
PART 1 |
|
|
ELECTORAL RIGHTS |
|
Persons
qualified as
electors
|
3. Every person who is a Canadian citizen
and is 18 years of age or older on polling day
is qualified as an elector.
|
|
Disentitle- ment from voting
|
4. The following persons are not entitled to
vote at an election:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Prohibition
|
5. No person may
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Persons
entitled to
vote
|
6. Subject to this Act, every person who is
qualified as an elector is entitled to have his or
her name included in the list of electors for the
polling division in which he or she is
ordinarily resident and to vote at the polling
station for that polling division.
|
|
Only one vote
|
7. No elector who has voted at an election
may request a second ballot at that election.
|
|
Place of
ordinary
residence
|
8. (1) The place of ordinary residence of a
person is the place that has always been, or
that has been adopted as, his or her dwelling
place, and to which the person intends to
return when away from it.
|
|
One place of
residence only
|
(2) A person can have only one place of
ordinary residence and it cannot be lost until
another is gained.
|
|
Temporary
absence
|
(3) Temporary absence from a place of
ordinary residence does not cause a loss or
change of place of ordinary residence.
|
|
Place of
employment
|
(4) If a person usually sleeps in one place
and has their meals or is employed in another
place, their place of ordinary residence is
where they sleep.
|
|
Temporary
residence
|
(5) Temporary residential quarters are
considered to be a person's place of ordinary
residence only if the person has no other place
that they consider to be their residence.
|
|
Temporary
residential
quarters
|
(6) A shelter, hostel or similar institution
that provides food, lodging or other social
services to a person who has no dwelling place
is that person's place of ordinary residence.
|
|
Interpreta- tion of ordinary residence
|
9. If the rules set out in section 8 are not
sufficient to determine the place of ordinary
residence, it shall be determined by the
appropriate election officer by reference to all
the facts of the case.
|
|
Members and
persons living
with members
|
10. Each candidate at a general election
who, on the day before the dissolution of
Parliament immediately before the election,
was a member, and any elector living with the
candidate on that day who would move, or has
moved, with the candidate to continue to live
with the candidate, is entitled to have his or her
name entered on the list of electors for, and to
vote at the polling station that is established
for, the polling division in which is located
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Part 11
|
11. Any of the following persons may vote
in accordance with Part 11:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Residence at
by-election
|
12. (1) No elector is entitled to vote at a
by-election unless his or her place of ordinary
residence on polling day is situated in the
same electoral district that includes the
polling division in which was situated the
elector's place of ordinary residence at the
beginning of the revision period established
by section 96.
|
|
Address
change within
electoral
district
|
(2) For the purpose of a by-election only and
despite anything in this Act, an elector who,
during the period between the beginning of the
revision period and ending on polling day, has
changed his or her place of ordinary residence
from one polling division to another polling
division in the same electoral district may
register his or her name on the list of electors
in the new polling division.
|
|
|
PART 2 |
|
|
CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER AND STAFF |
|
|
Chief Electoral Officer |
|
Appointment
of Chief
Electoral
Officer
|
13. (1) There shall be a Chief Electoral
Officer who shall be appointed by resolution
of the House of Commons to hold office
during good behaviour. He or she may be
removed for cause by the Governor General
on address of the Senate and House of
Commons.
|
|
Term of office
|
(2) The Chief Electoral Officer ceases to
hold office on reaching 65 years of age.
|
|
Appointment
of substitute
|
14. (1) In case of the death, incapacity or
negligence of the Chief Electoral Officer
while Parliament is not sitting, a substitute
Chief Electoral Officer shall, on the
application of the Minister, be appointed by
order of the Chief Justice of Canada or, in the
absence of the Chief Justice of Canada, by the
senior judge of the Supreme Court of Canada
then present in Ottawa.
|
|
Tenure of
office of
substitute
|
(2) A substitute Chief Electoral Officer
shall act as Chief Electoral Officer until 15
days after the beginning of the next session of
Parliament unless the Chief Justice of Canada
or the judge who made the order to appoint the
substitute Chief Electoral Officer sooner
directs that the order be revoked.
|
|
Absence of
Chief Justice
|
(3) In the absence of both the Chief Justice
of Canada and of the judge who made the
order to appoint the substitute Chief Electoral
Officer, the order may be revoked by any other
judge of the Supreme Court of Canada.
|
|
Remunera- tion of substitute
|
(4) The substitute Chief Electoral Officer is
entitled to be paid the remuneration fixed by
the Governor in Council.
|
|
Rank, powers
and duties
|
15. (1) The Chief Electoral Officer shall
rank as and have all the powers of a deputy
head of a department, shall perform the duties
of the office on a full-time basis and shall not
hold any other office under Her Majesty or
engage in any other employment.
|
|
Salary and
expenses of
Chief
Electoral
Officer
|
(2) The Chief Electoral Officer shall be paid
a salary equal to the salary of a judge of the
Federal Court, other than the Chief Justice or
the Associate Chief Justice of that Court, and
is entitled to be paid reasonable travel and
living expenses while absent from his or her
ordinary place of residence in the course of his
or her duties.
|
|
Superannua- tion and compensation
|
(3) The Chief Electoral Officer is deemed to
be employed in the Public Service for the
purposes of the Public Service
Superannuation Act and to be employed in the
public service of Canada for the purposes of
the Government Employees Compensation
Act and any regulations made under section 9
of the Aeronautics Act.
|
|
Communica- tion with Governor in Council
|
(4) The Chief Electoral Officer shall
communicate with the Governor in Council
through the Minister for the purposes of this
Act.
|
|
Powers and
duties of
Chief
Electoral
Officer
|
16. The Chief Electoral Officer shall
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Power to
adapt Act
|
17. (1) During an election period, if an
emergency, an unusual or unforeseen
circumstance or an error makes it necessary,
the Chief Electoral Officer may adapt any
provision of this Act and, in particular, may
extend the time for doing any act, subject to
subsection (2), or increase the number of
election officers or polling stations.
|
|
Limitation -
power to
adapt
|
(2) The Chief Electoral Officer shall not
extend the hours within which a returning
officer may receive a nomination paper or the
voting hours at an advance polling station or,
subject to subsection (3), the voting hours on
polling day.
|
|
Emergency -
extending
voting hours
|
(3) If voting at a polling station is
interrupted on polling day by an emergency
and the Chief Electoral Officer is satisfied
that, if the voting hours at the polling station
are not extended, a substantial number of
electors will not be able to vote, the Chief
Electoral Officer may extend the voting hours
at the polling station, as long as it does not in
any case
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public
education and
information
programs
|
18. (1) The Chief Electoral Officer may
implement public education and information
programs to make the electoral process better
known to the public, particularly to those
persons and groups most likely to experience
difficulties in exercising their democratic
rights.
|
|
Communica- tion with the public
|
(2) The Chief Electoral Officer may, using
any media or other means that he or she
considers appropriate, provide the public,
both inside and outside Canada, with
information relating to Canada's electoral
process, the democratic right to vote and how
to be a candidate.
|
|
Information
outside
Canada
|
(3) The Chief Electoral Officer may
establish programs to disseminate
information outside Canada concerning how
to vote under Part 11.
|
|
Electronic
voting process
|
18.1 The Chief Electoral Officer may carry
out studies on voting, including studies
respecting alternative voting means, and may
devise and test an electronic voting process for
future use in a general election or a by-election
provided that the process may not be used for
an official vote without the prior approval of
the committee of the House of Commons that
normally considers electoral matters.
|
|
|
Assistant Chief Electoral Officer and Staff |
|
Staff
|
19. (1) The staff of the Chief Electoral
Officer shall consist of an officer known as the
Assistant Chief Electoral Officer, appointed
by the Governor in Council, and any other
officers, clerks and employees that may be
required, who shall be appointed in
accordance with the Public Service
Employment Act.
|
|
Superannua- tion and compensation
|
(2) The Assistant Chief Electoral Officer is
deemed to be a person employed in the Public
Service for the purposes of the Public Service
Superannuation Act and to be employed in the
public service of Canada for the purposes of
the Government Employees Compensation
Act and any regulations made under section 9
of the Aeronautics Act.
|
|
Casual and
temporary
staff
|
20. Any additional officers, clerks and
employees that the Chief Electoral Officer
considers necessary for his or her exercise of
powers, and discharge of duties, under this Act
related to the preparation for, and the conduct
of, an election may be employed, in the
manner authorized by law, on a casual or
temporary basis.
|
|
Delegation by
Chief
Electoral
Officer
|
21. The Chief Electoral Officer may
authorize the Assistant Chief Electoral Officer
or any other officer on his or her staff to
perform any of the Chief Electoral Officer's
functions under this Act.
|
|
|
PART 3 |
|
|
ELECTION OFFICERS |
|
|
General |
|
Election
officers
|
22. (1) The following persons are election
officers:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Election
officers -
exclusions
|
(2) For greater certainty, a representative of
a candidate who is present at a polling station
is not an election officer.
|
|
Who shall not
be appointed
election
officers
|
(3) The following persons shall not be
appointed as an election officer:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|