On Feb. 4, Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative minister for democratic reform, introduced a "sweeping bill designed to protect the fairness of federal elections," according to the government news release.

According to the release, the bill does the following (among other things):

"Protects voters from rogue calls and impersonation with a mandatory public registry for mass calling, prison time for impersonating elections officials and increased penalties for deceiving people out of their votes."

"Gives law enforcement sharper teeth, a longer reach and a freer hand..."

"Cracks down on voter fraud by prohibiting the use of vouching and Voter Information Cards as replacements for acceptable ID."

"Allows small donations in, and keeps big money out."

But does it do any of those things? Critics say, largely, no.

With regard to stopping voter fraud by disallowing vouching, Green Party leader Elizabeth May pointed out in a speech in the House of Commons that this is a solution in search of a problem:

The is no evidence for the notion that Canadians ... are creating false IDs and voting more than once. Mr. Speaker, the crisis in Canadian democracy is not that Canadians voting more than once but less than once.

She then quoted a recent Supreme Court decision related to the issue:

The goal of accessibility can only be achieved if we accept some degree of uncertainty that all who voted were entitled to do so.

In terms of silencing Elections Canada, that organization's chief electoral officer pointed out:

"There are no other jurisdictions in the world where the electoral body cannot talk about democracy."

So, there's a lot to debate. Sadly, that won't happen in the house since the Conservatives shut down discussion after an hour.

So, we open up debate here on The Tyee.