OTTAWA - The Conservative government hopes to wrestle the parliamentary agenda back to safer turf next week by introducing two new bills on government accountability.
After taking two weeks of opposition pounding on the question of Afghan detainees, the Tories say they've devised legislation that will increase voter turnout in the next federal election.
And they're proposing a new law under the Canada Elections Act to tighten up rules for loans to political candidates.
The devil of both such policy goals is in the details, and Peter Van Loan, the government House leader, would reveal none Friday while promoting the government agenda.
Van Loan did suggest, however, that Canada is not about to follow the path of Australia, which has had mandatory voting laws since the 1920s and has one of the most strict enforcement regimes in the world. Australia's voter turnout averages around 95 per cent.
Canada has slipped to the low 60s in the last several federal elections.
"I don't think you can compel people to vote," Van Loan said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"We're going to be bringing forward measures that we think will help increase the turnouts in elections, to help people feel they have a greater stake in the future of their country, to help them think their vote will make a difference and will matter."
A source also dismissed Friday the notion the government will encourage voting by providing tax breaks to voters.
Many experts believe Canada's first-past-the-post voting system discourages voting, because the percentage of seats won by a party does not reflect its percentage of the popular vote. The 4.5 per cent of Canadians who voted Green in the last election, for instance, received no representation in Parliament.
The Conservatives are currently in the middle of a consultation process that is supposed to gauge the public appetite for changes to the electoral system. A fundamental change in the midst of the process appears unlikely to find its way into next week's legislative proposal.
Tightening up rules for campaign loans is a less complex goal.
On Friday, the Tories served notice on the parliamentary order paper that they will introduce a bill next week affecting loans to political candidates.
"Concerns have been raised about whether our election financing laws are meaningful and whether or not big money can play a role of undue influence," said Van Loan.
He cited last year's Liberal leadership race as an example, noting that a number of candidates took out significant loans to finance their campaigns.
Stephane Dion, the eventual winner, had "very significant personal loans" from several wealthy individuals, said Van Loan.
"He is mortgaged to people like that to the tune of half a million dollars."
Van Loan did not mention Wajid Khan, the Conservative MP who bolted across the floor from the Liberals in January and left his old Liberal riding association on the hook for more than $200,000 in loans from his own car dealership.
Van Loan declined to say whether the new law will address the troublesome matter of candidates loaning money to themselves from their own businesses.
"Our hope is to create a more fair system," said the Conservative minister.
One common proposal is to ensure that political candidates may only borrow money from accredited financial institutions.
"That is certainly one of the options that one would logically look at," said Van Loan. "There are other options, too."
"We're confident we've come up with a solution that will effectively achieve the intent of the Accountability Act and get the influence of big money out of politics."
