PARTIES PAY SIGN FINES

Liberals cough up $3,000 and Greens $500 related to election signage

Liberals cough up $3,000 and Greens $500 related to election signage

A difference of opinion over the meaning of the word “or” ended up costing the Liberal Association of P.E.I. $3,000, the party’s counsel told The Guardian.

On Thursday, the association plead guilty in provincial court to six charges related to the Elections Expenses Act. The party will pay a $500 fine for each charge.

On Friday, also in provincial court, the Green Party of P.E.I. plead guilty to a single charge related to election signage and was assessed a $500 fine.

Both parties were charged under the Elections Expenses Act.

Elections P.E.I. had received several complaints after some Liberal candidate signs were erected the night the writ was dropped – and before candidates had been officially registered. Elections P.E.I. had also received complaints that Green signs did not say they were authorized by the party’s official agent.

Scott Barry, defense counsel with the Liberal Association of P.E.I., said the party had interpreted the new act differently than Elections P.E.I. prior to the March 23 start to last spring’s provincial election campaign.

Barry said parties and candidates had erected signage immediately after the drop of the writ in previous elections.

But Section 17 of the new Act, passed in June of 2018, states that a party cannot advertise before “(a) the political party that is being promoted or opposed becomes a registered party; or (b) the candidate or potential candidate whose election is being promoted or opposed becomes a registered candidate.”

Barry says the use of the word “or” between subsections (a) and (b) was interpreted one way by the Liberals.

“In other words, the ‘or’ between (a) and (b) means ‘or’ as it’s commonly accepted in the English language,” Barry said.

“In the morning that the writ was dropped, Elections P.E.I. sent around a message to the official agents, to the effect of, ‘in this instance we’re interpreting ‘or’ to mean an ‘and.’ ”

Nonetheless, Barry said the party opted to plead guilty to the charges and pay the $3,000 in fines.

“At the end of the day, it made sense to just take lumps and move on,” he said.

The Guardian reached out to Elections P.E.I. for comment, but was referred to the Crown Attorney’s Office.