An important assurance

The Ottawa Citizen reports that with Bill C-31 having unfortunately passed in the House of Commons, the NDP is now pushing the Senate to give another look to the supposed justification for more draconian voter ID rules. And part of the evidence which currently supports the NDP's position is worth keeping in mind for later on:

The NDP is urging the Senate to review tough new requirements for voter photo ID in federal elections after Canada's new chief electoral officer said he has "no evidence" of widespread electoral fraud.

NDP House leader Libby Davies raised the concern after elections chief Marc Mayrand told a Commons committee yesterday the next federal election will cost $275 million even without technological and publicity changes that will be needed once mandatory photo identification is implemented...

When Ms. Davies raised the issue of potential fraud with Mr. Mayrand, he told the committee: "One thing I can assure you is that there is no evidence of systemic fraud" in federal elections.

Remember that Mayrand himself was nominated to the position by Harper earlier this year. As a result, Mayrand presumably can't be counted as a villain by the right-wing fringe as Jean-Pierre Kingsley was.

With no partisan basis for complaint, it should be next to impossible for the Cons to impugn his testimony. And as long as Mayrand's evidence is kept in the public eye, it should help to prevent the Cons from moving any further toward the voter suppression and politically-motivated prosecutions that play such a prominent part in the U.S. Republicans' playbook.