Federal elections bill restricts spending
Legislation also tackles fake news, foreign interference and voter privacy concerns
OTTAWA — The federal government wants to make it easier for Canadians to vote, while making it harder for political parties — or foreign entities — to violate their privacy or influence votes 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 thirdparty advocacy groups can spend before and during election campaigns.
It is also meant to buttress the Canadian electoral system against new threats to democracy by reining in the proliferation of socalled fake news and barring any organizations, including socialmedia 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 would be limited to spending $10,000 per electoral district — up to $1 million in total — on partisan advertising, activities and election-related surveys.
After an election has been called, however, 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 to 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 federal 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 voteridentification 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 said they are confident the changes will be in place in time for Canadians to vote in the next federal election.
Acting chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault said last week that anything meant to apply in 2019 should have been in place by now.
Meanwhile, new fundraising numbers show the Tories raked in nearly twice as much cash as the Liberals during the first three months of 2018 en route to one of the best first quarters by a federal party in a non-election year.
The Conservatives raised more than $6 million from 40,000 donors between January and March, far outpacing the 29,000 donors who gave $3.3 million to the Liberals.
The federal New Democrats came a distant third with nearly $1.4 million raised from 16,000 donors, followed by the Greens at $533,000 from 7,393 donors.
The Bloc Québécois, which is in disarray under embattled leader Martine Ouellet, reported having raised only $101,000 from fewer than 1,000 donors.