Elections bill targets privacy, spending rules
Would limit ads paid by parties, outside groups
OTTAWA • The Liberal government wants to make it easier for Canadians to cast a ballot, while making it harder for political parties — or foreign entities — to violate their privacy or persuade them who to vote for using falsehoods or vast sums of money.
Treasury Board President Scott Brison introduced a bill Monday meant to address several promises Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made on the campaign trail, including by tackling how much political parties and third-party advocacy groups can spend before and during election campaigns.
It is also meant to buttress the electoral system against new threats to democracy by reining in the proliferation of so-called fake news and barring any organizations, including social media sites, from knowingly selling election advertising bought with foreign funds.
“We know that the protection of our electoral system is absolutely essential and, over the years, we have seen new threats and new challenges appearing that may affect the integrity of our electoral system,” Trudeau said Monday in Vancouver.
Brison is acting as democratic institutions minister while Karina Gould, who usually fills that role, is on maternity leave.
The proposed legislation, if passed, would introduce a limit on how much political parties can spend on partisan advertising leading up to the official campaign period, which would be about $1.5 million in 2019.
Third-party advocacy groups, meanwhile, would be limited to spending $10,000 per electoral district — up to $1 million in total — on partisan advertising, activities and electionrelated surveys.
After the writs are dropped, however, those third parties would be able to spend up to $500,000 in 2019. That’s more than is currently allowed, but it would cover a wider range of activities and none of it could come from foreign entities.
The bill is also meant to modernize the Canada Elections Act to reflect the fact that a lot of campaigning now takes place online, introducing a number of new risks to the privacy of Canadians.
The proposed legislation, known as Bill C-76, would require all political parties to create and publish a policy on how they will protect the privacy of voters, including what information they are collecting from potential voters, how it will be safeguarded and how it will be used. They would also have to designate someone to handle privacy complaints.
Bill C-76 also contains measures to make voting easier, including by allowing someone with a disability to vote at home, and having advance polls remain open for 12 hours in an effort to reduce wait times.
It would also create a registry of Canadians between the ages of 14 and 17 who would be allowed to vote within the next few years.
The proposed legislation also includes measures to make it easier for those with caregiving responsibilities to run for federal political office, by reimbursing candidates 90 per cent of the cost of daycare, home care or other health-care services for their family members.
The Liberal government introduced some reforms in November 2016, aimed at undoing some of what the Conservatives introduced through their Fair Elections Act — including restoring the use of the voter identification card as a valid piece of ID.
That bill, stalled at the introductory stage ever since, will be rolled into the new one.
The legislation does not, however, come through on the promise to create an independent commission to organize televised debates among party leaders.
The Liberals are confident the changes will be in place in time for Canadians to vote in the next federal election.
“We want to have these measures in place by the election in 2019, because Canadians expect elections to be reliable and safe,” Trudeau said.
But acting chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault said last week that anything meant to apply in 2019 should have been in place by now.
WE HAVE SEEN NEW THREATS AND NEW CHALLENGES APPEARING THAT MAY AFFECT THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ELECTORAL SYSTEM.