Canada will now allow Muslim women to vote in all federal elections while in disguise.

Veiled women will be able to vote in the upcoming Quebec byelections — and all future federal contests — without showing their faces, Elections Canada says.

“It applies throughout the country,” said spokesman John Enright. “It applies to all federal elections, byelections and referendums.”

The announcement will be deeply divisive in Quebec, where there is both a sizeable Muslim population and heated opposition to this and other types of accommodation — a touchy word in the province that refers to concessions it might make to its religious and cultural minorities.

Premier Jean Charest yesterday called the development a “bad decision” and added that the debate had already happened in his province, which banned the practice. “Every person who comes out to exercise their vote must be clearly identified and in my eyes it’s as simple as that,” he told The Canadian Press in Sherbrooke yesterday.

Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, a Quebec MP, also criticized the decision. “We feel that it doesn’t make any sense. Political correctness has superseded common sense. These are the kinds of things ordinary people don’t understand.”

No kidding.

(Hat tip: LGF readers.)