The “Fair Elections Act” is the ultimate battle of rhetoric versus reason. In response to weeks of credible, objective, unanimous expert committee testimony opposing this bill, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre and Conservative MPs consistently repeat evidence-free talking points.

Non-partisan civil society groups, respected academics and chief electoral officers warn that the elimination of vouching and voter information cards will disenfranchise tens or hundreds of thousands of marginalized Canadians — despite the fact that individual voter fraud is virtually non-existent in this country.

The government’s response? It’s fair and reasonable that Canadians have some form of identification to vote.

The commissioner of Canada Elections says he needs the power to compel testimony because political operatives are frustrating his ability to investigate election fraud such as the 2011 robocall scandal.

The government’s response? The police secure convictions without this power. Why can’t Elections Canada do the same?

These are impressive talking points. They are intuitive, easy to understand. They’re also incredibly frustrating for those of us who believe in evidence-based decision making.

This ‘Fair Elections Act’ represents a unique moment for Canada. The government of the day is attempting to change the fundamental rules of our democracy without consulting Canadians or opposition parties — and without securing the support of even one credible, non-partisan, unbiased expert or organization. They have zero external validators — not entirely surprising, given the almost complete lack of evidence on offer to substantiate the core provisions of this bill.

There is no basis for denying our elections watchdog the power it clearly needs to compel testimony (accompanied by the appropriate safeguards recommended by Elections Canada). The Competition Bureau used this power 26 times last year alone; the elections watchdogs in seven provinces, Australia and the United States all have this power.

Making it harder for Canadians to exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote is a completely disproportionate response to the non-existent problem of individual voter fraud. Every credible expert and civic organization has made clear how devastating the removal of vouching would be for marginalized Canadians. Every single Canadian province and territory either allows citizens to vote without identification, or permits the safeguard of vouching.

If Canadians care about having truly free and fair elections, with meaningful participation for all segments of our society, this act must die. And that means we all have to fight back.

There are no reasonable grounds for denying Elections Canada the ability to work on reversing the alarmingly low rate of youth voting by experimenting with innovative get-out-the-vote efforts. Self-interested political parties tend to focus their mobilization efforts at those demographics most likely to vote — which is why we need non-partisan third-party campaigns to motivate youth to vote.

There is no legitimate reason to exempt fundraising expenses from spending limits — which would serve to benefit the Conservative Party and crowd out independent candidates or aspiring new political parties.

There is no credible reason for permitting partisan appointments of central poll supervisors.

The list goes on.

So confident are the Conservatives, however, that they’re willing to stare down the evidence and say: ‘Bring it on.’ They are quite literally daring opposition parties, the media and civil society to try and win this battle between rhetoric and reason.

They’ve gotten away with it before. Think prorogation. Or the end of the long-form census. Or their irrational (and, apparently, largely unconstitutional) approach to tackling crime. Or their proclivity for inserting every imaginable legislative change into omnibus budget bills. On every occasion Harper’s take-no-prisoners, talking point-heavy approach hurts him hit the polls — but he still gets his way.

But the Fair Elections Act is different. This isn’t about scoring points any way you can — this is about changing the rules of the game. If Canadians care about having truly free and fair elections, with meaningful participation for all segments of our society, this act must die. And that means we all have to fight back.

Canadians need to be willing to educate their friends and family about the dangers of this act, as research has shown we are more likely to listen to people we trust than the media or politicians.

Opposition parties and the media need to continue sounding the alarm, day after day, week after week — even if it seems as though it’s the same old story.

Civil society groups need to do everything they can to educate their members about the dangers of this bill, give them the tools necessary to share that message with their communities and mobilize them to clearly demonstrate that passing the Fair Elections Act will lead to Prime Minister Harper’s downfall in 2015.

Make no mistake: this act, if passed as-is, will stack the deck in the Conservatives’ favour for the 2015 election and beyond. And, perhaps even more importantly, it will signal the death of reason in politics.

Adam Shedletzky is a co-founder of Leadnow.ca, a progressive advocacy group that is running a campaign calling for changes to the Fair Elections Act. He is a junior fellow at Massey College and a student at the University of Toronto’s faculty of law.

This article appeared originally in The Tyee.

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