We must stand on guard against foreign money skewing elections

Now that the smoke from Canada Day fireworks has dissipated, it’s time to stand on guard against fire hazards to our democracy.

There are many vital issues facing Canada right now. There is perhaps nothing quite as vital, however, to the integrity of our democracy than ensuring that Canadian elections remain for Canadians by Canadians.

Blake Richards, Conservative MP for Banff-airdrie, recently filed inquiries of several ministries asking what is being done to ensure that foreign money is not allowed to influence Canadian votes, as happened in the 2015 federal election campaign.

“We have the possibility in Canada for a foreigner to change the outcome of our elections with foreign money, which is something that I think would shock a lot of Canadians,” said Richards. “There are third-party advocacy groups ... bragging that they changed the outcome of the last election, and that’s something Canadians ... would expect to be fixed,” he added.

Indeed, as first revealed by Postmedia News more than one year ago, the California- and New York-based Tides Foundation doled out millions of dollars to Canadian third-party organizations that later boasted of materially changing the outcome of the Oct. 19, 2015, federal election.

The group Leadnow, in its report entitled Defeating Harper, stated that it targeted 29 seats by sending paid staff members to run the Vote Together campaign, which urged citizens to cast their ballots for the left-of-centre candidate most likely to win.

The Leadnow report states that the group conducted 57 sophisticated and costly local polls across 37 ridings to help it determine the left-of-centre candidate most likely to beat the Conservative candidate in any given riding.

“The Conservatives were defeated in 25 out of 29 ridings,” states the Defeat Harper report.

Leadnow staff members flew around the country, as Facebook postings and photographs show, and those costs were not declared or even required to be declared as an election expense by Elections Canada.

That is hopefully going to change before the fall 2019 election, but only if suggested amendments made by Canada’s new Chief Electoral Officer, Stephane Perrault, are implemented in the federal government’s Bill C-76, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act.

“Regulating the spending of third parties in areas such as canvassing and get-out-the-vote calling, as well as election advertising, will help to ensure a level playing field between third parties and other political entities,” Perrault said at a May 28 hearing of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

While Bill C-76 “does make significant strides in limiting ... foreign funding during the election campaigns,” says Perrault, “the bill does not completely eliminate the possibility of foreign funding.”

It is against the law for anyone to use foreign funds during a Canadian election. However, currently, as long as that foreign money comes in to a third party at least six months before the start of an election, it is legal.

It took the federal Liberal government an astonishing 19 months — from Dec. 2016 to June 2018 — to hire Perrault as Canada’s new chief electoral officer, even though he was the acting CEO.

Some critics believe the federal Liberals, who benefited from the foreign influence on Canada’s election, were purposely dragging their heels in this regard for reasons of self interest.

As Perrault wrote in his proposed amendments to Bill C-76, “if foreign funds pass through a domestic entity and are sent to a second domestic entity, the second entity could use those funds on the basis that they are now ‘domestic’.”

“That is simply a loophole that must be closed,” said Jean-pierre Kingsley, who served as Canada’s chief electoral officer for more than 17 years, from 1990 to 2007.

“Right now, this loophole is big enough to drive an armoured truck through,” added Kingsley, who long fought against unfettered third parties playing by different rules than candidates and political parties.

Political parties are prohibited from accepting foreign money and have strict spending limits.

“There really are few issues more important to our democracy than ensuring a fair election by eliminating the risk of foreign interests being involved, and making sure our elections are for Canadians by Canadians,” said Kingsley.

Last election, it was U.S. money that influenced the results. Next time, it could be Russian or Chinese interests being advanced.

Kingsley is in favour of banning any involvement in Canadian elections from organizations that receive foreign money. That is the safest approach.

We shouldn’t just sing about standing on guard for our country, we must do it.