S-213 (45-1) - An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act (demographic information)
Chamber
senate
Stage
2nd Reading
Introduced
May 28, 2025
Progress
This bill requires major political parties to publicly report diversity efforts and the Chief Electoral Officer to collect demographic data on candidates.
Key Changes
- Larger registered parties must publicly post their candidate diversity programs, policies, and annual progress updates on their websites
- Parties must publicly share specific plans and targets for nominating women candidates, including in competitive ridings and open nominations
- Parties without diversity programs or targets must publicly explain why and provide a proposed timeline for adoption
- The Chief Electoral Officer must distribute a voluntary self-identification demographic questionnaire to candidates, nomination contestants, and leadership contestants
- Elections Canada must publish anonymized demographic reports on candidates within 90 days after a general election, and at appropriate times for by-elections and leadership contests
- These demographic reports must be submitted to the House of Commons by the Speaker
Gotchas
- Participation in the demographic questionnaire is entirely voluntary, which may result in incomplete or unrepresentative data in Elections Canada's reports
- The diversity disclosure requirements only apply to parties above certain vote thresholds, meaning smaller parties are exempt
- Parties are not required to actually adopt diversity programs — they can simply explain why they have not, with no penalty for inaction
- The diversity disclosure provisions (Section 3) do not come into force until two years after royal assent, giving parties time to prepare
- Demographic data collected through questionnaires is confidential and can only be used for the official reports, limiting other potential uses of the data
Who's Affected
- Registered political parties that received at least 2% of national votes or 5% in ridings where they ran candidates
- Candidates, nomination contestants, and leadership contestants who will receive demographic questionnaires
- The Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Canada, who gain new reporting responsibilities
- Voters and the general public, who gain access to more transparency about party diversity practices
- Women and members of designated equity groups (as defined in the Employment Equity Act)
Vibes
0 responses
Gotchas
- Participation in the demographic questionnaire is entirely voluntary, which may result in incomplete or unrepresentative data in Elections Canada's reports
- The diversity disclosure requirements only apply to parties above certain vote thresholds, meaning smaller parties are exempt
- Parties are not required to actually adopt diversity programs — they can simply explain why they have not, with no penalty for inaction
- The diversity disclosure provisions (Section 3) do not come into force until two years after royal assent, giving parties time to prepare
- Demographic data collected through questionnaires is confidential and can only be used for the official reports, limiting other potential uses of the data
Summary
Bill S-213 makes two main changes to Canada's Elections Act. First, it requires larger registered political parties (those that received at least 2% of votes nationally, or 5% in ridings where they ran candidates) to post information on their websites about how they are working to increase diversity among their candidates. This includes sharing any diversity programs, targets for nominating women, and annual updates on their progress. If a party has no such programs or targets, they must explain why and provide a timeline for possibly adopting them. Second, the bill requires the Chief Electoral Officer (Elections Canada) to send a voluntary, self-identification questionnaire to candidates, nomination contestants, and leadership contestants. The responses would be used to produce anonymized public reports on the demographic makeup of people running for office. These reports would be submitted to the House of Commons. The bill was introduced by Senator Dasko and appears aimed at increasing transparency around political party diversity practices and providing better data on who is running for elected office in Canada.
Automatically generated from bill text using Claude
Vibes
0 responses