Chief Electoral Officer (February 23)
Mr. Hehr: Mr. Speaker, Albertans have been both supportive and proud of our troops serving overseas in the protection and defence of people’s right to vote for a democratically elected representative.
Given this backdrop, my question is for the Justice minister. Why did your government select an individual to run Elections Alberta who does not believe that it’s his job to encourage people to vote, or is this the government’s whole idea?
The Speaker: The hon. Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
Ms Redford: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not my understanding that the government did select this individual. I believe that was the purview of this House.
Mr. Hehr: I understand that, but we all know who actually selects these individuals to run our departments.
Do you think it’s possible for your department to maybe instruct this individual that their mandate is to encourage active participation in getting Albertans to vote, or are you going to ignore that job?
Speaker’s Ruling
Questions about Officers of the Assembly
The Speaker: Well, hon. member, just for clarification. The person in question, the Chief Electoral Officer, is an officer of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, not the government of Alberta. If it came to my attention that a minister of the Crown was actually intervening in the affairs of an officer of the Legislative Assembly, there would be an intervention all right. It would come from me.
Third question.
Chief Electoral Officer
(continued)
Mr. Hehr: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that. I guess I just like the old way when the old guy was actually trying to actively promote things and actually get people to vote, but who am I to argue with the process that we have in place here?
I guess my final question for the political minister – I mean the Justice minister – is that given her answers today are what most people already know, are there really any substantive changes coming to the electoral act? Can we see some fixed election dates? Can we see some reform to university students being able to vote at the schools where they’re going to school? Or what’s going on?
The Speaker: The hon. minister.
Ms Redford: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The first thing I’d say is that if there are people in Alberta that are concerned about the efficiency, the transparency, or the honesty of this system, I would suggest that one of the reasons for that might be because of the sort of information that’s being propagated through the prelims to these questions. However, Mr. Speaker, as I have said on more than a regular basis, we will be introducing amendments to the Election Act based on the recommendations of the Chief Electoral Officer, both the current one and the previous one, as a result of lessons learned from the past two elections that are printed in published reports. I think we’ll have a great debate in the Legislature.
Alberta Hansard, February 23, 2010