Fixed election dates and cultural or religious holidays: the Ontario experience/ Elections a date fixe et journees d'importance culturelle ou religieuse: l'experience de l'Ontario.

• Author: Hollins, John

Ontario is one of three provinces to have adopted legislation providing for fixed election dates. British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador are the others. But, what happens if the date provided in the legislation coincides with a date of religious or cultural significance for a particular segment of the population? This article explains how Ontario handled such a situation when the date defined in the legislation, October 4, 2007, coincided with a religious observance.

The fixed date for Ontario elections was first introduced as a commitment during the 2003 election campaign. The government moved forward with the legislation and it was then my responsibility to administer it.

Section 9.1(6) of the Election Act reads as follows:

If the Chief Election Officer is of the opinion that a Thursday that would otherwise be polling day is not suitable for that purpose because it is a day of cultural or religious significance, the Chief Election Officer shall choose another day in accordance with subsection (7) and recommend to the Lieutenant Governor in Council that polling day should be that other day, and the Lieutenant Governor in Council may make an order to that effect. Section 9.1 (7) reads:

The alternate day shall be one of the seven days following the Thursday that would otherwise be polling day. This was the target, or, as we would later define it, the flexibility we were provided. Section 9.1(8) states:

In the case of a general election under subsection 9(2), an order under subsection (6) shall not be made after August 1 in the year in which the general election is to be held. I will go back to the three words that I found very important: "cultural," "religious" and "significant." It was important for us to understand and define them.

With regard to culture, in the absence of a definition by the Election Act or any found in provincial legislation or ministry sites, we used "culture" as it is defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). "Cultures embrace literature and the arts as well as ways of life, value systems, traditions and beliefs." In deriving cultural groups, we have deferred primarily to the latter part of this definition and looked at ethnicity and country of origin.

Religion is not defined under the Election Act. Under the province's Religious Organizations' Lands Act, "religious organization" means an association of persons which, among other things, is "organized for the advancement of religion and for the conduct of religious worship, services or rites," and is "permanently established both as to the continuity of its existence and as to its religious beliefs, rituals and practices." It "includes an

association of persons that is charitable according to the law of Ontario and that is organized for the advancement of and for the conduct of worship, services or rites of the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Baha'i, Longhouse Indian, Sikh, Unitarian or Zoroastrian faith, or a subdivision or denomination thereof."

In its classic definition, "A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them." (1)

In the absence of a definition by the Election Act, we interpreted "significance" to be such that a single elector could not attend a poll to cast his or her ballot due to the preclusion of the cultural or religious day and, as an extension, that they could not participate in the electoral process as we know it. By extension, this would also include being a candidate for office or working as an election worker as the rest of the community could enjoy.

With regard to process, Elections Ontario surveyed organizations representing cultural and religious interests across Ontario during the period of October 24 to December 15, 2006. We also considered correspondence sent to us independently from individuals and we posted and encouraged people to participate on our website.

We directed our survey to 278 organizations. Our contacts comprised 56 cultural communities in the 10 major religious communities. It was necessary to develop a database of organizations in a manner representative of Ontario's cultural and religious demographics, and we...