Ted White (politician)

Canadian politician

Edward Alexander White (born 18 April 1949) is a former Canadian politician who served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2004. Born in Southampton, England, White was first elected in the British Columbia riding of North Vancouver in 1993 as a Reform Party of Canada candidate. He was re elected in 1997 and 2000. While he was a member of parliament, Reform became known as the Canadian Alliance, then merged with the Progressive Conservatives into the Conservative Party of Canada. White was defeated in the 2004 federal election by Liberal candidate Don Bell, therefore serving in the 35th through 37th Canadian Parliaments. In the 1983 British Columbia general election, he was a candidate for the separatist Western Canada Concept party in the North Vancouver Seymour riding.

In June 1994, White became the first MP in Canada to use electronic voting to sample the opinions of constituents. He was criticized by opponents at the time because there was a charge to place the call to vote, but White defended the charge as the only way to pay for the services being provided by Maritime Tel. White was the Official Opposition Critic for a major overhaul of the Elections Act in late 1999. The only Official Opposition amendment to the Bill, C 2, permitted by the Minister at the time, the Hon. Don Boudria, was the insertion of Clause 18.1, which permitted Elections Canada to experiment with electronic voting methods. Throughout the Committee hearings, White had ardently pushed for the provision, but Minister Boudria opposed it. Agreement for the insertion of the clause was reached on the evening of 1 December 1999, during a telephone discussion between White and Boudria. The clause remains intact with a minor wording change in Bill C 23, which was introduced during the 41st Parliament to amend the Elections Act.