Thursday May 29, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
In this political climate of a push for electoral reform, just how ready could Elections Canada be to execute a national election with a new ballot process?
“Our mandate is to be ready to administer a federal election at any time,” says Election Canada in a statement to Island Social Trends today.
“Without knowing specifics of what a new ballot process may look like, we cannot give a definitive timeline,” said an Elections Canada spokesperson.
Can they or would they be ready?
Based on the following statement, it looks like a government would — if they wished — have a way around requiring an electoral reform amendment to be used in the next upcoming election.
“However, section 554 of the Canada Elections Act provides that no amendment to the Act applies in an election for which the writ is issued within six months after the passing of the amendment unless, before the issue of the writ, the Chief Electoral Officer has published a notice in the Canada Gazette hat the necessary preparations for the bringing into operation of the amendment have been made and that the amendment may come into force,” says the Elections Canada media relations team this week.
That statement also indicates that — although Elections Canada says their mandate is to be ‘ready at any time’ — unless they have published a declaration of being ready (following an amendment to the Act), that they essentially don’t need to be ready on a specific timeline.
Political context:
Green MP Elizabeth May is calling for electoral reform before the next federal election.
May hopes to see a process of proportional representation instead of the currently used first-past-the-post, saying that would provide a more representative government relative to how people actually voted.
The Canada Elections Act requires that the next federal election be held no later than October 15, 2029, but it could be called sooner (as we saw in recent examples of Trudeau called an election in 2021 when the set date was in 2023, and Carney calling an election in spring 2025 when the date was not required until fall 2025).
If there were to be an amendment resulting in electoral reform, it would ideally need to happen by the beginning of 2029, allowing a window between January 1 and April 15, 2029 — that being at least six months ahead of October 15, 2029.
Depending on the temperament of the 45th Parliament — as to how long this current Liberal minority will last — of course the desired electoral reform amendment would be hoped for in 2026, 2027 or 2028.
===== RELATED:
- Elizabeth May calls for electoral reform before next federal election (May 28, 2025)
- Elizabeth May chooses party over parliament (May 25, 2025)
- Elizabeth May on solo Green journey back to Ottawa (May 23, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: 45th PARLIAMENT OF CANADA | GREEN PARTY OF CANADA | FEDERAL ELECTION 2025