The E-Referendum Voting System
There is a large number and diverse range of policy subjects on the federal, provincial and municipal government levels. Here are examples of what Canadians could vote on using the CPP's new policy formulation system.
(i) Should there be universal child care in Canada?
(ii) Do you approve of Canada moving to a flat tax system?
(iii) Should drunk driving convictions for second time offenders that involve death or serious injury trigger an automatic life sentence?
(iv) Is it better to build more prisons or allocate more funding to target crime prevention through poverty reduction and first offenders rehabilitation?
(v) Should the government enact legislation outlawing unsolicited telemarketing?
(vi) Are you in favor of the government restricting by legislation privacy invading practices of collection agencies such as home calls, limiting them to no more than once a month; and ought robo calling be prohibited?
(vii) Should government increase tax dollar funding for programs that help other countries fight poverty and disease and improve education?
(viii) Should Canada have a gun registry?
(ix) Should the government substantially increase Criminal Code penalties for white collar crime and corruption by public officials?
(x) Are you in favor of spending tax dollars to aggressively convert all government vehicles to electric and hydrogen fuel cells?
(xi) Do you want to have all Crown Corporations abolished?
(xii) Are you in favor of more tax dollars spent on a comprehensive poverty and homelessness reduction strategy?
(xiii) Ought the government allocate significantly more resources to reduce health care wait times?
(xiv) Ought the Canadian Armed Forces be decommissioned and the $30 billion/yr budget be redirected to improving Coast Guard resources, protecting northern sovereignty and alleviating poverty?
(xv) Should the government pass gender discrimination legislation to ensure pay equity in the public and private sector work place?
There are a plethora of articles on this method of voting:
Council of Europe Committee of Ministers to member states on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting [and e-referendums] [Link] (2004)
A Comparative Assessment of Electronic Voting, Carleton University [Link] (2010)
Dr. Patrick Boyer QC - Canada's Preeminent Academic & Legal Scholar on Referendums [Link] (2012)
E-Referendum Voting: Should Canada's Political System Be Overhauled to Incorporate 21st Century Technologies, by Brad Kempo Esq. B.A. LL.B. [Link] (2012)
About citizens E-referendum [in Iceland] [Link] (2013)
Occupy movement should launch Internet referendum [Link] (2014)
"Over 2 million people in Veneto took part in the internet referendum on March 16-21" [Link] (2014)
Electronic Voting: Selected issues concerning implementation of a new tool of civic democratic participation [Link] (2014)
Committee backs push for Edmonton Internet voting, Edmonton Journal [Link] (2015)
Effects of the Internet on Participation: Study of a Public Policy Referendum in Brazil, World Bank [Link] (2015)
E-Voting, The Council of Europe [Link] (2017)
Has the time now come for internet voting?, BBC [Link] (2017)
Online Voting: A Path Forward for Federal Elections, Gov't of Canada [Link] (2017)
Online voting 'tide' sweeping across Ontario, CBC [Link] (2018)
How Switzerland's direct democracy system works [Link] (2018)
Internet voting starts next Tuesday in Peterborough [Link] (2018)
Estonian parliamentary elections, a whopping 44% of the ballot was cast using e-voting [Link] (2019)
Russia scales up e-voting for key referendum [Link] (2020)
E-Referendum on AI-Powered Economy [Link] (2020)
European and national priorities for Internet governance: Towards a pan-European agenda 2020 [Link]
Establishing a Legal Framework for E-voting in Canada, Elections Canada [Link] (2020)
Switzerland referendum: Voters reject end to free movement with EU, (BBC) [Link] 2020
Since the conceptualization of the CCP there have been significant advances in security. Here are some private companies, several Canadian or with an office in the country*, offering the latest in e-voting solutions:
AssociationVoting.com [Link]
BigPulseVoting.com* [Link]
Civiciti.info* [Link]
eBallot.com [Link]
IntelivoteSystems.com* [Link]
SimpleSurvey.com* [Link]
SimplyVoting.com* [Link]
Scytl.com* [Link]
VotingPlace.net* [Link]
YesElections.com [Link]
The legitimate concerns of security experts are addressed and remedied in the draft legislation. To ensure the legitimacy of the majority by e-vote there will be a simultaneous mailed paper ballot to several million Canadians. Should there be a discrepancy of significance the former will take precedence; plus the rest of the population will be sent the ballot to ensure the overall integrity of the referendum protocol.
7(6)(b) Where the Chief Electoral Officer determines that a policy is of national, provincial, territorial or municipal importance, a paper ballot format of referendum voting shall be implemented.
(c) To make the paper ballot format as convenient as possible the Chief Electoral Officer shall arrange for the delivery and receipt of the paper ballots by way of Canada Post based on the needs of the voter.