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SO LONG AND GOOD BYE - CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER
Jean-Pierre Kingsley, a former hospital administrator,
was appointed Canada's Chief Electoral Officer in 1990. He
held that position for 17 years, resigning on February 16,
2007. During his time in office, he cut a wide swath through
our electoral system, happily charging many with infractions
to his hallowed Canada Elections Act. For example, Paul Bryan,
a software engineer in Vancouver, committed a dastardly deed
in the 2000 federal election by posting the election results
on the internet before the polls closed in British Columbia.
A contemptible act, according to Mr. Kingsley, who quickly
had the individual charged.
Mr. Kingsley was noted for his over-centralizing
and bureaucratizing of the federal electoral process, and
for his court challenges to third-party advertising, such
as the charges laid against the National Citizens Coalition
in 2000, which was headed then by Stephen Harper. At that
time, Mr. Harper called Mr. Kingsley "dangerous".
He may have been right.
Mr. Kingsley, as Chief Electoral Officer,
was appointed by a resolution of the House of Commons. He
held the rank of a Deputy Minister and was paid the salary
of a Federal Court Judge, $216,600 annually.
Under S. 18 of the Canada Elections Act, the
Chief Electoral Officer is entitled to "… implement
public education and information programs to make the electoral
process better known and to use any media or other means …"
relating to Canada's electoral process.
Mr. Kingsley regarded S.18 of the Act as empowering
him to do whatever he liked, whenever he liked. The Chief
Electoral Officer is required to report directly to Parliament,
but, under the Liberals, he was given a free hand to do exactly
what he wanted to promote his own liberal agenda. Two examples:
1. Manipulating School Children
In 1999, Mr. Kingsley, working with UNICEF
Canada, requested 15,000 schools in Canada to conduct an
organized "vote" by school children in regard
to their "rights" set out in the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child. A very liberal interpretation
of this Convention was included in his package of information,
which not only treated children as miniature adults, but
also portrayed parents as causing undue restrictions on
a child's right to privacy, freedom of expression, religion,
association (which would include a cult) and having access
to pornography, etc.
In sending out the educational package,
Mr. Kingsley had gone over the heads of both the provincial
governments and parents, directly approaching the children
to vote for their favourite "right" on so-called
election day, November 19, 1999, in special "polling
stations" set up in their schools. The results were
to be broadcast nationally and presented to the federal
government as a "Children's Rights Mandate."
The provincial Ministers of Education, schools,
and parents were enraged by Mr. Kingsley's high-handed tactics,
and his failure to seek approval before involving the schools.
As a result, many school boards across Canada passed resolutions
rejecting the plan.
REAL Women was so concerned about this phony
vote by children that we wrote, not only to every provincial
and territorial Minister of Education, but also to over
400 school boards across Canada advising them of this plan,
and requesting that they reject it. Many did so and had
not even been aware of the vote prior to receiving our letter.
2. Supporting the Feminist Agenda
The federal Status of Women gave a Quebec
Women's group called Women's Political Equality (Groupe
Femmes, Politique et Démocratie), which was founded
in 1998, a $19,000 grant in 2000-01, and in 2001-02 a $27,800
grant to prepare a pamphlet, grandly called "The Project
of the Century." The "project" was to push
for more female candidates in the electoral process, especially
by way of female quotas. This biased pamphlet stated it
was supported by Elections Canada and the pamphlet was posted
in its entirety on the Elections Canada website during the
December 2005 - January 2006 federal election campaign.
Its message was clear: Vote for and promote female candidates.
The document included the usual feminist myths that women
did not earn the same pay as men. The pamphlet did not disclose
that because of family responsibilities, women customarily
work shorter hours in lower paying occupations than men,
and as a result, have a lower average income, based not
on discrimination, but rather on women's life and work choices.
The pamphlet also complained that governments
generally balk at establishing rules and regulations that
promote "women's access to power". The pamphlet,
in short, was a feminist diatribe aimed at promoting feminism
and feminists to power through the electoral process. This
unbalanced pamphlet was sheer propaganda and could in no
way be characterized as "education". This pamphlet
still remains as a link on Election Canada's website: www.elections.ca
Kingsley Resigns
Mr. Kingsley abruptly resigned from his
position as Chief Electoral Officer on February 16, 2007.
He fervently denied his resignation had anything to do with
his recent disagreement with the Conservatives over whether
that party broke the law by failing to disclose $500,000
in political donations. The Conservatives' controversy with
Mr. Kingsley was settled in December. Mr. Kingsley definitely
did not like the fact that, for the first time, someone
(the Conservative government) was apparently looking over
his shoulder, and, as a result, he was no longer the absolute
monarch of his domain, as he had been under the Liberals.
In any case, Mr. Kingsley, a public servant,
left his position in February with a fist full of taxpayers'
money, as has become the norm for departing civil servants
in recent years. For example, Mr. Kingsley and four of his
senior managers spent $39,000 on a seven-day trip to England
and Scotland to study electoral systems in December. This
occurred three weeks after his resignation was submitted.
Mr. Kingsley also claimed hospitality expenses for an $822
wrap-up dinner at the exclusive Rideau Club in Ottawa with
six of his senior managers, just two days before the final
day on the job.
New Electoral Officer Appointed
A new Chief Electoral Officer has now been
appointed. He is Marc Mayrand, a former law professor who
taught insolvency and corporate law at the University of
Ottawa and who, since 1997, has served as Superintendent
of Bankruptcy with the federal government. If there is an
election any time soon, Mr. Mayrand will not have an easy
time getting up to speed on the complexities of running
that election. He'll need a lot of luck just to survive!
In the meantime, please write to Mr. Mayrand
and request that the offending feminist propaganda pamphlet,
"The Project of the Century," be removed from
Election Canada's website.
Please write to:
Mr. Marc Mayrand
Chief Electoral Officer
257 Slater Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0M6
Tel: 1 800 463-6868
Fax: 613 954-8584
1 888 524 1444
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