By Pepper Parr
May 16th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
It is time to take a hard look at how Elections Canada ran the last federal election.
Elections Canada is an agency of the Parliament of Canada, and reports directly to Parliament rather than to the Government of Canada.
Founded: July 1, 1920
Agency executive: Stéphane Perrault, Chief Electoral Officer of Canada
Annual budget: $628,864,260 (2021–22)
Employees: 500 (Permanent) up to 235,000 (election period.
The number of people who went to polling stations on Good Friday set a new record. Line-ups in many locations had people waiting more than an hour to vote
Vote counting took a long time – more than a day in many situations.
The number of recounts that were done was exceptionally high.
And – the voting was done with paper ballots.
Is it perhaps time for the federal government to direct Elections Canada to give people the opportunity to cast their ballot electronically?
There has been significant concern over possible foreign intrusion into the election process we have. The GET NAME xxx – Surely this country has people with the expertise to create a system that cannot be violated.
The vote count is Terrebonne ( a constituency just north of Montreal) gave that riding, eventually to the Liberals, by a single vote that raised more than one eyebrow.
Elections Canada admitted this week that a misprint on an envelope used to mail a special ballot from Terrebonne led to one Bloc voter’s mail-in ballot being returned to her. The misprint contained an error in the last three digits of the postal code for where the ballot should have been sent.
BLOC party leader Yves Francois Blanchett.
Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation.
Despite the error, Elections Canada said Wednesday the result of the judicial recount in the riding was final. BLOC party leader Yves Francois Blanchett said the party will contest the result in Quebec’s Superior Court. And well they should.
The recounts, there are still several underway, could well determine which political party governs the country. That is what democracy is all about.
That Elections Canada was overwhelmed is unfortunate. Get the job done and then have a hard look at the way we run our federal elections and come up with solutions.
The Prime Minister did appoint Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation – one of the first things he might want to consider is to direct Elections Canada to research and produce an electronic system for the casting of ballots and provide them with the funds to do the job.
I thought that on almost every level the federal election was handled more effectively and efficiently than the provincial. I also noticed a rather strange difference between the two; an odd, unexpected and quite unpleasant effect of the federal election. Several of my colleagues, who are of a different political hue than me, have become morose and almost vindictive. It is as though their disappointment at the Liberal win has been transformed into a nastiness that I would never have expected. These are good people, sincere and well-intentioned but they have moved (hopefully temporarily) beyond their better selves and are demonstrating a meanness that is very atypical and certainly not attractive.
Obviously, It is time that all Canadians forget petty differences and band together. We need to speak from one, united, common voice. Let’s hope that we have enough strength and integrity to find it.
I have worked in Elections Canada as a Poll Supervisor and with the Deputy Returning Officer for my riding in past elections. Elections Canada only had 5 weeks to prepare. Remember – candidate names were only available on April 7. They had to print millions of ballots. And mail millions of voter cards ( which seemed to get stuck at Canada Post ).
Some ridings were brand new. Many voters were first time voters or voted early.
Thousands of poll workers needed to be trained, given supplies and get sworn in.
Polling stations set up, etc etc.
All things considered… Elections Canada did an excellent job – for Canadians to basically elect the SAME government for the fourth time.
This year I worked as a scrutineer at both the provincial and federal elections. It is my opinion that the federal election is better administered than the provincial election. There was little variance in how the five federal polling stations that I observed were run, and all followed the prescribed procedures. In the provincial election I observed seven polling stations. Three stations were well run, one station was understaffed and overrun, two stations were questionable, and one station was redundant with little usage. Elections Ontario would benefit from adopting the procedures of Elections Canada. Elections Canada could benefit from using the tabulating machines used by Elections Ontario; however, the accuracy of the count using these tabulating machines is dependent on the people operating them and unfortunately human error is a factor. Elections using tabulating machines require scrutineers with the additional skillset to ensure the machines are properly initialized, fed ballots, and closed.
At least the paper ballot, counted by hand, is completely transparent. Online voting has the same problem as many other online systems when something doesn’t work right, and the user is at the mercy of support desks, if any, working with a fixed deadline to close the polls. Mail in ballots and advanced voting offer many options for voters with timing or mobility limitations. Elections Canada does a fantastic job to create polling stations and deploying thousands of poll staff on short notice.
And nothing will solve the incessant demand from media for instant results, First Past the Post distortion of results, voter apathy, it goes on.
Having been a scrutineer in Federal, Provincial and Muni elections lets not be too hasty in removing the human element from our democratic processes. Too much of our lives is being controlled by technology and not in a good way. The poll I took part in had 1 spoiled ballot and 2 rejects. Lets fix the mail in part and work towards having more people involved in the counting process as it is something you wont forget or regret doing.
Not to mention the lack of accessibility required by law for the Reporting Office in the B building on Ghent/Brant that was totally unacceptable.