Latest / Podcasts By Donna Jodhan / Remarkable World Commentary Episode #41: Interview with Paul Jorgenson, Assistant Director, Stakeholder Mobilization, Elections Canada | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA | September 16, 2025

Transcript

Remarkable World Commentary Episode #41: Interview with Paul Jorgenson, Assistant Director, Stakeholder Mobilization, Elections Canada | Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA | September 16, 2025 · Podcasts By Donna Jodhan

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Podcast Commentator: Greetings Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP and MBA invites you to listen to
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her biweekly podcast, Remarkable World Commentary.
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Here, Donna shares some of her innermost thoughts,
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insights, perspectives and more with her listeners.
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Donna focuses on topics that directly affect the future of kids,
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especially kids with disabilities.
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Donna is a blind advocate, author, sight loss coach,
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dinner mystery producer, writer, entrepreneur,
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law graduate, and podcast commentator.
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She has decades of lived experiences, knowledge,
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skills, and expertise in access technology and information.
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As someone who has been internationally recognized for her work and roles.
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She just wants to make things better than possible.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Remarkable World Commentary.
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I'm Donna Jodhan, a lifelong disability advocate and one who sees the world mainly
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through sound, touch and stubborn optimism.
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I am a law graduate, accessibility consultant,
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author, lifelong barrier buster who also happens to be blind.
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You may know me from a few headline moments.
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In November 2010, I won the Landmark Charter case that forced the Canadian government to
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make its websites accessible to every Canadian,
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not just to sighted ones.
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In July of 2019, I co-led the Accessible Canada Act with more than two dozen
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disability groups to turn equal access into federal law and most recently,
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on June the 3rd, 2022, I was humbled by Her Late Majesty's Platinum
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Jubilee Award for tireless commitment to removing barriers.
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When I'm not in a courtroom or in a committee room or pottery studio,
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you'll find me coaching kids with vision loss,
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producing audio mysteries, or helping tech companies to make their
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gadgets talk back in plain language.
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Everything I do circles one goal to turn accessibility from afterthought into everyday
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practice. I invite you to think of this show as our shared workbench where policy meets
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lived experience and lived experience sparks fresh ideas.
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Now, before we jump into today's conversation,
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let me shine a spotlight on today's guest.
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A change maker whose work is as every bit as remarkable as the world that we're trying to
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build. Paul Jorgensen of Elections Canada, welcome to our podcast.
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Paul Jorgenson: Donna, thank you so much for having me. It's a huge pleasure to be here.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Great. So let's start off here by question one.
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Paul, you and I first crossed paths during election Canada's coast to coast disability
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town hall in 2019. Could you start by explaining why Elections Canada felt
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that it was important to hear directly from Canadians with disabilities,
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and what the agency learned from those conversations?
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Paul Jorgenson: Yeah, I'd be happy to.
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It's true, actually. We we crossed paths in 2019.
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But I've actually been familiar with you for quite a bit longer than that. Your landmark
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court case really was very impactful to me personally.
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And I've, I've, I've been an admirer of yours for,
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you know, the nine years between that court case and when we actually first met there.
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So even though that was the first time we had crossed paths I was I was very familiar and
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very familiar with you and your work, and I was so tickled when I learned that I
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was going to get a chance to work with you in 2019,
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when we first, when we first met.
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And so yeah. So to answer the question Elections Canada is a really rare
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organization in a number of different ways.
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And I was you know, I have lots of experience working as a,
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as a consultant, as a web developer.
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I have experience in the private sector, public sector and nonprofit sector.
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And to be honest, I have never met an organization anywhere that is as
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truly committed to having its to hearing from partners and stakeholders and the people we
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serve as Elections Canada.
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And it is really baked into the DNA of this organization to have our
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services and have our work be based on the lived experience of the people we serve.
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And that includes Canadians with disabilities.
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So, you know, my team we work extensively with people with disabilities as well as
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indigenous people young people and new Canadians electors experiencing homelessness
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all kinds of other electors who face barriers.
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And our whole goal is to understand the barriers that they face and understand the
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barriers that they face and to take action to do whatever we can to tear those barriers
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down. So it's, a Y. Elections Canada felt it was important is quite simply because the
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agency has made it a priority to hear directly from Canadians with disabilities.
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And, and we see this not just at my level, but up to the highest levels of the agency.
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Our CEO, the chief electoral officer of Canada,
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gave a technical briefing yesterday where he mentioned the importance of accessible
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voting. On numerous occasions.
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So this truly is something that is felt in Elections Canada from top to bottom,
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left to right.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: And I will certainly add that this has been a really,
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really unique organization for me to work with.
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I've enjoyed every minute of it, and I want to congratulate you and your team
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for having continued to do this.
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Well, good for you.
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Paul Jorgenson: Thanks, Donna.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: You're welcome. So since then, you have moved into the role of Assistant
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director for stakeholder mobilization.
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And in plain language, what does that job involve for one week to
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the next, especially between elections when most people assume that nothing is really
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happening behind the scenes?
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Paul Jorgenson: Yeah, it's a great question.
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I get asked that often.
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You know, sort of. Oh, you work for Elections Canada?
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Well, what do you do when there's not an election? Yeah. And with with my work and the
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and the work that my team does, we're we're sort of a bit of an odd duck as
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far as the agency is concerned, because in many ways,
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we're actually busier between elections than we are during elections.
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That's not to say we're not very busy during an election, but what we've heard from our
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partners yourself included.
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But from a lot of our partners, is that the types of audiences that we are
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looking to reach, you know, people that face barriers,
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you know, indigenous partners, people with disabilities, you know, all of
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these partners that the you know, they're all different.
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They all have unique considerations and different barriers.
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But one thing that unites them, one sort of thread that connects all of these
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things together, is that they all have been very clear to us that we need to be engaging
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them well in advance of the election.
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You can't just show up when the election starts and say,
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all right, here you go. Here's your your Braille template or here's your whatever.
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We they really insist on the importance of doing that engagement long in advance so that
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people know about their democratic rights and people know about the tools and services
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available for them. And people know about you know,
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the different options in terms of voting times and things like that so that they can
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make a plan to vote, because these electors have just as much a democratic right to vote
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and to run as a candidate in office.
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But, you know, they might need just a bit more time to plan life stuff around it.
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And so that's why my team's actually engaged throughout the electoral cycle.
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If it's not in the direct administration of, you know,
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helping to deliver an election and things like that,
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then what we're doing is reaching out and building partnerships with key Interveners
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and key organizations who are willing to work with us to break down these barriers,
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whether it be through consultations or whether it be through establishing contracts
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to you know, share information and accessible formats with their audiences and you know,
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deliver workshops or attend events or do other sort of outreach initiatives.
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So, you know, one of the things that's great about my job is that it's not the same thing
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from one week to the next.
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It's, you know, we're always busy. We're always working hard.
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But you know, after an election, my job involves a lot of,
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you know, retrospective. Did we actually meet the objectives that we set out to meet?
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Is our program actually delivering the results for people with disabilities for you
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know, indigenous electors for all of our other stakeholder audiences that that we have
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intended and what can we do better?
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And then there's, you know, setting up these partnerships and then
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there's delivering on it.
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So there's really sort of a, a bit of a cycle.
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And it's not necessarily the same from week to week,
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but there is that sort of common Thread that that is sort of a throughput from one
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election to the next.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: The election is now over since April, and now you're busy again until the next
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election, which is should be, what, 2029?
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Paul Jorgenson: Well, I mean, I wish that we knew the date of the next the next election.
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The, the parliamentary system means that, you know,
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the government you know, an election could be called at any time if
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the government loses a confidence vote or asks for the governor general to dissolve
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parliament. So you know, Elections Canada's mandate is to be ready at
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any moment to deliver an election.
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So it's, you know, if if we go the full you know,
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four years, then yes, it would be around that time.
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But we have to actually make sure that we're ready well,
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before then, just in case there's a there's an election earlier.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh, wow. So you and I have been collaborating on voter confidence toolkits aimed at
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Canadians who are blind, visually impaired, or have other
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disabilities. Can you walk our audience through what those toolkits include and how
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they can get them to to how they can get them to into accessible formats?
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Paul Jorgenson: Yeah, absolutely. I'd be happy to.
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So the the toolkits are we have three toolkits actually,
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and each one is intended to break down key barriers to a different type of
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electoral participation.
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So at Elections Canada, we define Find electoral participation as not
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just registering and voting.
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Obviously, registering and voting is is the biggest one.
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It's the one people think about.
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But we also consider running as a candidate in a federal election as a type of a really
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very meaningful, important type of electoral participation.
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And so we have a toolkit on running as a candidate,
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breaking down barriers on how to run as a candidate in a federal election.
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We've got a toolkit on working at a federal election.
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Elections Canada is we we recognize and are committed to trying to have our workforce
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represent the Canadians that we serve.
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You know, a lot of people don't know that every federal election we become the biggest
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employer in the country, and we hire more than 200,000.
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I think, you know, in the last election, we hit 230,000 people hired Retired in order
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to deliver that election.
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And we need and want them to reflect the full diversity of the Canadian population.
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So my team has a toolkit specifically on this recruitment piece to help demystify the
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process of working at a federal election.
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And we go to different communities and we we,
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we promote this and try to encourage our audiences to submit their application,
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come help their fellow Canadians you know, to vote and help us deliver the election.
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And then we've got a third toolkit that's on registering and voting you know,
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sort of the big one, the, the, the obvious one that everybody thinks
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about there, you know, and each of these are going to be a little
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bit different because, you know, it's a very, as you can imagine, a
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very different endeavor to you know, set out to go and you know,
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run in a federal election versus working in a federal election versus,
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you know, registering and voting in a federal election. But you know,
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these toolkits are all available on our program's website,
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which is Inspire Democracy.
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And you can just go to the act section.
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It's you know, learn, act, connect, and you can just go to act.
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And the toolkits are right there.
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It's you'll be pleased to know, Donna, that Donna,
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that the the website is fully wcaG compliant fully wcaG 2.1 compliant.
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And it's actually it actually exceeds the standard of your,
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your federal court case there.
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So it's we really work with a really fantastic web developer team at Elections
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Canada. And they're very deeply committed to ensuring that that this is accessible.
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And we also have made these toolkits accessible in other formats,
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including for for deaf electors in ASL and Lsq format.
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The video format as well.
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So that's another really helpful thing.
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And it's also available in English and French.
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Because we've heard from a lot of stakeholders that those formats are helpful
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for people with learning disabilities or people with you know,
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traumatic brain injury. It can be helpful to have a video format where you can sort of
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have the information come in that way, pause,
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walk away from it, come back.
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So we offer it in multiple formats and multiple styles.
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And the toolkits themselves were developed in consultation with our stakeholders,
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including people representing people with disabilities.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I have to smile to myself because I remember a few months ago,
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or even last year, you were trying to convince me to run as a candidate,
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and I kept telling you, no way.
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Paul Jorgenson: I stand by that. I still think you should.
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I think you'd be a fantastic candidate, Donna.
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I think the running is in a federal election toolkit would be a great place to start.
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I think you'd do absolutely phenomenal work.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much.
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Let's move on. The advisory Group for Disability Issues,
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where I served reports regularly on gaps we still see.
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So can you give listeners an example of feedback from that group that has turned into
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a policy or operational change?
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Paul Jorgenson: Yeah I can give you a couple if you like actually. Sure.
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So one really meaningful change that took place in 2018,
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2019. So based on feedback that we'd heard from the advisory Group for Disability
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Issues, or AGD, as we often call it.
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In short we proposed to Parliament.
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We asked Parliament to amend the Canada Election Act which they thankfully did.
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They agreed to our recommendation to add in not one,
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but two different expense expense claims that are valid for
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candidates running for office.
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So we were able, with that legislative change,
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to offer two different accessibility expenses,
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one for candidates themselves who have a disability and who will incur some sort of
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you know, personal expenses related to their disability in the course of running for a
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campaign that could be anything from you know,
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the need for a sign language interpreter to you know,
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if they need to have you know, level access modifications made to you know,
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an office location to, you know, you name it,
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right? That was a new disability related expense that we have offered since 2019 to
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all candidates with disabilities.
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And that is those expenses incurred are reimbursable up to 90%.
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And moreover, those expenses are not covered under the the campaign spending threshold
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because they're related to the candidate's disability themselves.
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So I think that's really frankly, game changer.
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And and then that that's not the end of the story that's also partnered with Second
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Accessibility Expense, which is for any campaign,
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regardless of whether it's you know, the person,
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the candidate themselves has a disability or not.
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If there's a campaign that wants to make their campaign more accessible again,
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for example, you know, could be installing, you know,
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some sort of level access you know ramps or whatever for their campaign offices.
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Or it could be hiring sign language interpreter to animate events or debates or
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it could be to undertake an accessibility audit of their websites or,
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you know, developing communication products and alternate formats. You know, you name it.
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Those are also reimbursable up to the 90% level for for those things,
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too. So, you know, I see these as real a real game changers for people with disabilities
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who want to run for office.
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And I can give another one that I was that I was personally involved in.
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So you know, people might have heard of the longest ballot.
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Oh, yes. Thing that happened now a few different times.
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And this you know, sort of made news you know,
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in August with the the by election in Alberta in battle River Crowfoot and then also in the
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general election in April in the Carleton riding.
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But it's happened elsewhere in previous electoral districts elsewhere in the country.
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And it's been going on for, for a number of years.
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And in December 2022, back in my previous role,
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when I was heading up the consultation team at Elections Canada I oversaw a consultation
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with our partners On how we should be adapting the ballot design.
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What would be the most accessible ballot design options for large ballot situations
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where we have an unusually large number of candidates?
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And I'm pleased to say that the feedback that we received from that consultation shaped our
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our approach to these situations for a number of years and still forms the basis of our
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policy recommendations on how to handle these situations.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Wow. Oh my gosh. Now, voter registration is often the first contact
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that a citizen has with Elections Canada, right?
23:27
Yep. What features are in place to ensure that the online registration process works
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smoothly for screen reader users and for people who rely on adaptive technology.
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Paul Jorgenson: Yeah, it's an excellent it's an excellent question.
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So what I can say is when we were first rolling out well,
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shortly after, anyway, we were rolling out the,
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the voter registration we undertook, again, a very in-depth consultation with I
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think actually, you might have even been in that user group. Donna, you can correct me if
24:11
I'm wrong in that, but certainly it was.
24:13
Yeah. There you go. So my memory my memory is pretty good there. So yeah, that would have
24:16
been 19 I think. Yeah.
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We did do an audit of that feature.
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So this is a feature that we offer on our website,
24:28
and it's very popular during an election, and it's where people can check their voter
24:33
registration status. And if they find that they are not registered,
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they can they can register to vote using this this tool.
24:45
And anyway, so we undertook an audit where we,
24:49
we tested it, we had certain tasks that people were asked people,
24:55
screen reader users were asked to complete, and they identified what they were able to
25:00
complete with ease, what they were able to complete with difficulty and what they were
25:06
not able to complete. And we took that feedback.
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And we have made improvements and changes and modifications to the voter registration
25:16
service based on the feedback that we received from those user group tests and from
25:23
that, we've continued to do user group testing.
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In fact, we've expanded our use of this type of user group.
25:35
In our web development, but also in our other technological
25:40
initiatives that we've we've undertaken in order to make sure that,
25:43
you know, it's not just doing a wcaG audit.
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You know, although we do have a really fantastic web team.
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You know, I was a web accessibility consultant for a number of years,
25:55
and our web team led by Mark Lynn really is one of the best that I've encountered in
26:03
terms of their commitment to web accessibility.
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So I just need to give them a shout out.
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But even though they're doing really phenomenal work on that,
26:11
we don't rely just on that.
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We do go and do this extra step of consulting and doing the user testing to make sure it's
26:17
as accessible as we can make it for for screen reader users.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: That's great. That's great.
26:25
Now, some rural and remote communities lack accessible polling places.
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What creative solutions such as mobile wholesale,
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mobile poles or home visit voting are being expended to each electors
26:50
who you know are travel, who find who cannot travel easily.
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Do you want to repeat the question, or are you okay?
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Paul Jorgenson: No, I think I'm okay. I think I've got a I think I got a good understanding of of what's
27:05
being asked there. So there it's this is one of those really really interesting challenges
27:12
that a lot of people who who you know, aren't necessarily familiar with it,
27:16
they might not necessarily realize how how challenging it is.
27:19
Right? You know, the the elections Canada's mission is to ensure that Canadians can
27:24
exercise their democratic rights to run as a candidate and vote in federal elections.
27:31
Nowhere in that mission Does it say unless you live in a rural or remote community or
27:36
unless you are not disabled, we really do take the we really do take it
27:42
seriously that we want it to be all Canadians,
27:45
you know, who are over 18.
27:47
You know, these are their democratic.
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These are their human rights. These are their democratic rights to do so.
27:53
The agency has a really strong commitment to you know,
27:56
offering this. And we accomplished this in several ways.
28:01
I would say the, the most popular and probably the easiest for many electors,
28:10
but it doesn't work for everybody is mail in voting.
28:15
So mail in voting is a is a really really valuable option for a lot of people.
28:21
So once the election gets called, you can apply to vote by mail.
28:25
We send you a you know, a mail in ballot kit,
28:29
and you fill it out and then you send it back to us,
28:32
and then we we count your vote in your electoral district.
28:37
So you never need to leave your home for this one.
28:39
Now that's a really great option for some people,
28:41
but not for everybody.
28:43
You know, some people who have difficulty with dexterity might not work very well for
28:49
them because you do need to sign your name, and you do need to write in the name of the
28:55
candidate you're voting for.
28:57
So that might not be a good option for them.
28:59
Also, for some people who are blind or partially sighted,
29:02
it may or may not work for them either.
29:06
So it's, you know, it's a good option.
29:07
It's a popular option, but it's not necessarily one that works for
29:10
everybody. Right. So an alternative option that we do offer and we a lot of people don't
29:18
know that this exists, but for homebound electors,
29:22
we do offer vote at home service.
29:28
This is limited to homebound electors.
29:31
And you can request you can apply for that.
29:35
This is typically you know, a last resort.
29:39
But but that is something else that we offer.
29:42
And for rural and remote communities, one of the things that we've been you know,
29:49
one of the things we've always been doing is, you know, still locating polling locations in
29:53
rural and remote communities.
29:55
But one of the things we've been starting to do more in the most recent election is
30:01
looking at ways to significantly expand our service offering for rural and remote
30:09
communities. So the CEO, the chief electoral officer set this as one
30:15
of his priorities. And he spoke really eloquently about this in his press conference
30:21
just after the the election was launched.
30:24
And because of the adaptive measures that we put in place,
30:29
You know, some of these rural and remote communities have very few electors.
30:33
And so they don't necessarily need a full, you know,
30:37
four days of advance voting, for example.
30:40
I remember talking to one returning officer in Newfoundland, where he had one community
30:45
in his electoral district that had I can't remember whether it was 4 or 6 electors.
30:50
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Oh.
30:51
Paul Jorgenson: You know, 4 or 6 electors.
30:53
And you know, they don't need four days to you know,
31:00
to have all 4 or 6 of them vote, but they have a legitimate expectation that
31:06
they will have their Democratic franchise respected,
31:08
their democratic rights to vote, be respected,
31:11
and we have to serve them.
31:13
And so we've been starting to pilot more adaptive advanced polling options.
31:19
So you know, whether some communities would be open to having you know,
31:25
a different schedule of advanced polls.
31:29
That's another thing that we've started doing,
31:31
and it's actually proven quite successful. It allowed us to significantly expand our the
31:37
number of communities, especially indigenous communities, that we
31:39
were able to reach in the last in the last election.
31:43
So those are just some of the creative solutions that we've we've deployed to help
31:48
tackle this. It's really challenging.
31:53
Problem of, you know, because country is so vast,
31:55
you know, and yes, all these people.
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Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Trust in institutions is fragile.
32:05
Worldwide. Worldwide. Sorry.
32:08
How does Elections Canada measure voter confidence among people with disabilities?
32:17
And what indicators tell you that confidence is rising or that more work is needed?
32:30
Paul Jorgenson: Well, this is actually one of those things where both are true confidence.
32:37
This is sort of one of those counterintuitive things.
32:41
But a lot of people would be shocked to know you know,
32:45
if you had to guess, when was Canadians highest level of confidence in the
32:54
administration of electoral system recorded in public opinion data.
32:58
A lot of people would be shocked to hear that it was just after the 2021 election.
33:03
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay.
33:04
Paul Jorgenson: We don't yet have data on the 2020 election that happened this April.
33:08
But a lot of people, you know, we sort of were consumed by the news and it's
33:12
often bad news stories.
33:14
And so we, we often take a negative view of things.
33:20
But Elections Canada remains one of the most trusted institutions in the country,
33:26
according to public opinion data.
33:29
And we do have some evidence that, you know,
33:31
the evidence is a bit mixed. We have some evidence that suggests maybe a bit of a
33:35
decline in confidence commensurate with all public institutions.
33:40
But we also have some evidence that suggests that confidence in Elections Canada actually
33:45
increases over the course of an election the more they interact with us.
33:48
So we're still we're still trying to, you know,
33:54
get more information on the data that we have available.
33:57
But certainly, I'm encouraged by the data that I see about the confidence.
34:03
But that said there is still more work that is needed.
34:08
And specifically on the question of you know,
34:11
electors with disabilities, we do have some data that show that as the
34:16
severity of disability increases among electors,
34:19
they do tend to be a bit less likely to have a very high level of trust in election
34:24
results, or to say that Elections Canada ran the election.
34:28
Well or have a great deal of confidence in Elections Canada as,
34:34
as an independent agent of parliament.
34:36
So it's sort of one of those things where I think even though confidence is very high in
34:44
Elections Canada, there is still more work to be done.
34:47
And that's you know, in large part the work that my team's doing.
34:51
You know, we don't want to we want to earn the confidence.
34:55
We don't want to just, you know tell people they should have
34:59
confidence in us. We want to create that.
35:02
We we deserve their confidence.
35:06
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: So for anyone listening who faces a barrier on voting day,
35:12
what is the fastest way to get help or lodge an accessibility complaint so that the
35:22
issue Shoe can be resolved promptly.
35:27
Paul Jorgenson: So the absolute fastest way, bar none, is to talk to a person who works at
35:36
the pole. So talk to a polling clerk.
35:38
Talk to the if there's an arrow there, an assistant returning officer,
35:43
or if there's you know, a pole supervisor there to ask to speak to
35:50
them. And they are the fastest and best suited to give that quick,
35:57
immediate service and resolve the complaint properly.
36:01
Our poll workers are all trained on this model.
36:06
That it sounds so simple.
36:08
It sounds so self-evident, but I am I am shocked by how nevertheless,
36:15
revolutionary and rare it is.
36:17
But we train all of our people on what we call the ask,
36:21
listen, do model. We ask somebody if there's anything that we can do to help them if they
36:29
want any help. We listen to what they have to say.
36:33
You know, if they say you know.
36:35
No, I don't need any help. You know, we don't want to assume that a person needs
36:39
any help. We ask, we listen if they say no.
36:43
Actually, I would like help. I'd like you to do this.
36:45
Then you do the thing they ask you to do.
36:47
So really, it's it's it's simple, but it's revolutionary.
36:51
So that is the absolute fastest and best way to to,
36:57
to get help. If you encounter any sort of difficulty in voting on Election Day or at
37:05
advanced polls there, I should say that people should have a high
37:10
degree of confidence that we will meet their accessibility needs.
37:14
So I don't want to scare people away.
37:16
I want people to go into the poll you know, with that high degree of confidence.
37:22
People should have that high degree of confidence that they they will have their
37:27
needs met and that the poll workers will be there to to,
37:33
to, to, to be problem solvers and to and to resolve those issues.
37:38
But in the event that this doesn't work, you know,
37:43
for whatever reason, something's happened and the,
37:47
you know, the poll supervisor or the assistant returning officer or whomever is
37:52
not able to resolve the problem quickly on the spot,
37:57
then we do have A18 hundred number that we invite people to call us.
38:02
And I can report that it's a live operators.
38:06
It's not an AI chatbot or anything like that.
38:09
These are human beings.
38:11
On the other end of that call and they will log any accessibility complaints.
38:16
And if people are wondering whether those complaints just sort of disappear into the
38:22
ether after the election.
38:23
I can assure them that they do not.
38:25
My team personally gets forwarded many of these,
38:29
and we you know, I personally jumped in to resolve issues for electors.
38:36
And my team has done so as well.
38:39
And we also do track overall statistics of that.
38:42
So it absolutely is something that we look at and we factor into our retrospectives and our
38:49
learnings after each election.
38:53
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: I have one final question for you, Paul.
38:56
And zooming out, if you could leave our audience with one action that they can take
39:05
right now to prepare for the next federal election,
39:12
especially for those who have never voted before,
39:17
what would that be and how can Elections Canada support them on that journey?
39:27
Paul Jorgenson: Yeah, that's a great question. Can I suggest both an action and maybe like a mindset that
39:35
might go complement each other very well.
39:37
And the mindset is sort of what I was just saying,
39:40
which is that I would like people to have to have a reasonable expectation that,
39:47
you know, it is reasonable for them to expect that they will receive a high degree of
39:50
service that meets their needs when they go to vote.
39:53
So I don't want people to feel like like they can't vote.
39:57
I want people to feel like this is this is for everybody.
40:03
This is for for you. So please do you know, come in with that high expectation.
40:12
It is. It is not a burden.
40:15
It is not a difficult we want to serve you.
40:17
So, you know, that's the first bit.
40:19
And the one action I can say you know, everybody's going to be different.
40:24
Everybody's going to have their own different needs and whatnot.
40:30
But generally speaking, what I advise people to do is to make a plan
40:34
to vote, you know, and I sort of talked a little bit about how there's different voting
40:39
options available. You know, not all of them.
40:43
Some of them are really ideal for some people,
40:46
and some of them are really suboptimal for others.
40:48
And but between the different options we, we do have sort of something for everybody.
40:57
You know, some people have you know difficulty in large crowds.
41:03
So for those people, I often recommend that they go and vote at the local Elections
41:10
Canada office. A lot of people don't know that yes,
41:13
you can vote at advance polls, but you can vote at almost any point in time
41:18
during the election period just by showing up to your local Elections Canada office,
41:23
and you can vote that way.
41:24
That's a really good option for people who have difficulties with crowds.
41:29
You know, using the the braille template and the braille list of candidates or the large
41:35
print list of candidates you know, to help identify the candidate you want to
41:39
vote for. Those are really excellent options that are available on Election Day.
41:46
You know, so I really recommend those for other people.
41:48
Vote at home is a really viable option for homebound electors.
41:52
Vote by mail is another really great option for you know,
41:56
people who don't have dexterity issues and people who are able to sign their name to
42:02
different documents and, you know, things like that. So,
42:04
you know, there's different options for different people. But I would recommend that
42:07
people make a plan to vote.
42:10
And if they want help in making that plan, they can go to Inspire Democracy and check
42:14
out our toolkit on registering and voting.
42:17
It has information on accessible voting options available as well as our service
42:23
offering. You know, you can always ask a poll worker if you want help voting.
42:29
It's not often an option that everybody wants because they want to be able to vote
42:34
independently and anonymously.
42:35
But if you do need help, that is another option.
42:38
And then that poll worker actually has to swear a solemn oath to forever keep your vote
42:45
secret. So, you know, lots of different options available.
42:48
And I think it's just if people make a plan as to which one's going to be the best for
42:51
them, which one's their preferred option?
42:54
We can absolutely accommodate them.
42:58
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Do you have any final thoughts to share with our listeners before I let you go?
43:03
Paul Jorgenson: No, I mean, I think this is really fantastic.
43:06
Donna, thanks so much for having me on.
43:08
I really appreciate getting a chance to to share this message.
43:13
You know, maybe if, you know, if I can give get one last plug to our
43:17
website. Inspire democracy.
43:20
If people are interested in you know, more information on registering and voting,
43:24
they can find it there.
43:26
But, you know, like I said, if people want to work at a federal election
43:31
we are looking for workers.
43:33
You know, the average income for a person who is blind in this country is under $20,000,
43:39
according to Statistics Canada.
43:41
And you know, we pay a good salary.
43:46
It's not. It's not minimum wage.
43:48
It's well above minimum wage.
43:50
And and we are actively looking for people.
43:52
You can submit your resume you know, even outside of election periods there.
43:57
And we keep it on file.
44:00
And likewise, if you're interested in potentially running as a candidate,
44:04
you know, Donna if you're looking at candidate,
44:09
we've got our toolkit one there that's just right there sitting for you. And I encourage
44:12
you to consult it.
44:14
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Would you be my campaign manager then?
44:16
Paul Jorgenson: I would need to. I would need to quit Elections Canada if I did that.
44:19
I can't.
44:20
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: No, no, we can't have that.
44:21
No. Oh, dear. It was a pleasure having you, Paul.
44:26
And you know, if you think at any time there is something you wish to share with our
44:31
listeners, please reach out, let us know, and we'd love to have you back
44:35
again.
44:36
Paul Jorgenson: Sounds great.
44:37
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay, great. Thank you very much.
44:39
And have a great afternoon.
44:41
Paul Jorgenson: Thank you. Donna.
44:41
Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA: Okay. Bye bye. Bye bye.
44:48
Podcast Commentator: Donna wants to hear from you and invites you to write to her at DonnaJodhan@gmail.com.
44:54
Until next time.