The federal Liberal government tabled electoral reform legislation Wednesday that seeks to alter the way voters cast their ballots in a series of ways, while proposing measures to better protect the electoral process from foreign interference and disinformation.

Presented in the House of Commons by Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, the sweeping new bill advances amendments to the Canada Elections Act aimed at enhancing citizens participation and trust in Canadas electoral process.

While not a full-scale overhaul of the federal voting system as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once promised, Bill C-65 proposes to:

• add two additional days of advance voting, giving Canadians a total of seven days to cast their ballot;
•  improve the vote-by-mail special ballot process, including by allowing voters who registered for but did not use their special ballot to vote in-person on election day with safeguards to prevent double-voting;
•  make the 2015 pilot Vote on Campus program permanent;
•  offer dedicated, on-site voting for electors in long-term care, including allowing staff to identify the best day and time for residents to vote;
•  give voters who require assistance, such as those with disabilities rendering them unable to mark their ballot, the choice of who may help them when voting; and
•  move the 2025 fixed Oct. 20 election date to the following Monday to not conflict with Diwali.

Further, the government is promising to take steps towards allowing voting at any polling station in an electors riding, as well as to further study the measures needed to allow an expanded three-day voting period during general elections.

The Liberals and New Democrats have been quietly plotting election law changes for some time, in line with a series of confidence-and-supply agreement pledges aimed at expanding the ability for people to vote.

This bill satisfies those calls in different ways but goes further, adding in other Liberal pledges to shore up future elections from foreign meddling.

For example, Bill C-65 the Electoral Participation Act also stitches in Canada Elections Act amendments aimed at:

•  expanding key protections against foreign interference beyond the election period;
•  banning intentionally false or misleading statements about election activities or the voting process to disrupt an election or its results;
•  prohibiting contributions through money orders, pre-paid gift cards and crypto-assets;
•  proposing new third party contribution rules;
•  clarifying rules around impersonation to include the misuse of artificial intelligence or deepfakes; and
•  enacting new privacy policy requirements for federal political parties.

The Canada Elections Act is the countrys fundamental legal framework regulating Canadas electoral process. It is administered by the Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Canada, while the compliance and enforcement elements are overseen by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.

The government says Wednesdays package of reforms is informed by recommendations from these officials, lessons learned from the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, as well as the evolving global and domestic context.

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill Wednesday, LeBlanc and his NDP counterpart Daniel Blaikie spoke to the bill, indicating a desire to see these measures passed in time for them to come into effect for the next federal election, required under law to be held no later than October 2025.

After leading negotiations for his party on the elements of this bill the NDP was pushing the Liberals to enact, Blaikie announced last month that he would vacate his seat on Parliament Hill as of March 31.

On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participated in a session on technology, elections, misinformation and disinformation as part of a democracy summit. There, he announced $30.4 million for new projects meant to strengthen democracy in Canada and around the world.

Our democracies didnt happen by accident, and they wont continue without effort, Trudeau said in a statement.