Manitoba Premier Gary Doer tabled a sweeping electoral reforms bill that will ban floor crossing by provincial politicians.

"If you're elected as a Conservative, you can't cross the floor to the Liberals," Doer explained on Monday.

The proposed bill will require politicians who want to swap parties to either resign and run again in a byelection or sit as an Independent until the next election.

Doer said a ballot is "a sacred trust'' between voters and candidates which must be protected.

Since Manitoba hasn't had a politician cross the floor in 18 years, the bill is more of a reaction to the federal-level defections.

"We're hearing a general feedback from people that some people don't take their votes in election campaigns seriously," Doer said.

The floor-crossing ban is receiving praise from the Conservative opposition.

Kelvin Goertzen, the Conservative justice critic, said he supports the ban.

"I do believe politicians aren't free agents," said Goertzen. "When they're elected to certain political parties, the people who elected them expect them to stay within that political party."

Manitoba's premier is also hoping to reform the Senate in a big way.

"I believe that the Senate should be abolished. I mean, there are some good people in the Senate but it's basically a patronage body. That costs a lot of money," Doer said Monday.

However, if the federal government moves toward an elected Senate, the premier said he would hold an all-party committee with public hearings to determine how the province's senators should be elected.

Another feature of this sweeping bill includes opening advanced polling stations for the entire week before an election and putting them in convenient locations such as shopping malls and apartment buildings.