Stephen Harper 'gaming the system' with early election call, says former Elections Canada head

The former head of Elections Canada says Prime Minister Stephen Harper is "gaming the system" with an early election call and the result is parties with less money are politically disadvantaged.

"What it does is completely distort everything we've ever fought for, everything we've established as rules," Jean-Pierre Kingsley said in an interview on CBC Radio's The House.

Jean-Pierre Kingsley still has concerns over electoral changes

Canada's former chief electoral officer has come out swinging against the amended version of the proposed fair elections act, known as Bill C-23, including the compromise on the controversial issue of vouching.

"This (Bill C-23) will result in some people having more difficulty voting," Jean-Pierre Kingsley told host Evan Solomon on CBC Radio's The House.

Political parties should be legally responsible for staffers, says Kingsley

Federal political parties should have a legal responsibility when it comes to the people they hire, including contractors, and how they are trained, says Canada’s former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley.

“You simply cannot say, ‘Well it’s this company that broke the rules and not us,’ when in fact it has an impact on the election. I’ve always thought there should be some form of responsibility attached to the party,” said Mr. Kingsley in an interview with The Hill Times. “If there’s a clear indication that they should have known better, if there’s a clear indication that they did not provide any kind of guidance, that type of thing, then there should be responsibility attached to the political party and that might take legal measures.”