Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Fixed election dates coming to NB

Government House Leader Stuart Jamieson introduced Bill 75 today which will set fixed election dates starting with September 27, 2010 and every fourth Monday of September every four years thereafter.

This date was chosen over October 18, 2010 and every third Monday of October every four years thereafter as was proposed by the Commission on Legislative Democracy and by Bernard Lord. Presumably this is because Bill C-16, a piece of legislation before the federal parliament, would fix federal election dates on the third Monday of October.

The bill contains a provision for the election date to be moved one week earlier or one week later if there is a religious holiday on the date. It also contains an interesting provision moving the election to either the fourth Monday in August or the fourth Monday in October if there is a conflict with a federal election.

If a fixed provincial and federal election fell on the same year, campaigning for the federal election would be well under way by the end of September so would provincial elections in those cases be moved up to August? That would be unfortunate...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, theres a big deal for democracy...fixed election dates. Who says these guys don't have big visions.

Freddie L Sirmans, Sr. said...

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