11 years ago today, Stephen Harper filed a Statement of Claim with the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta, demanding that numerous provisions of the Canada Elections Act which related to spending restrictions on third party advertising be declared unconstitutional. It took nearly four years, and numerous decisions before Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the matter.A lot has changed within our electoral system since then, particularly the ways and means by which political parties, candidates and other electoral actors raise and spend money during and between campaigns.The latest change – ironically part of the Harper budget debate on this anniversary – will phase out public subsidies to political parties.The Telegram‘s Russell Wangersky offers a decent diagnosis of some of the unfairness in this artificial attempt to “level” the playing field. But part of his suggested solution – that parties simply be limited in what they can spend and do between elections is hardly practical. Nor is it a reasonable curb on free speech. It would create a government monopoly on speech (i.e. advertising) between elections, hardly a hallmark in a democratic society. We have political parties, not only to form governments, but to challenge them. Limiting their activities between elections doesn’t help anybody.Another great piece appears today in this weekend’s Bangor Daily News. It seems Maine’s electoral system, similarly publicly financed, is now also under attack in its legislature. Former Republican and Democratic legislators make the case in this great column.If you’re interested in challenging what the Harper government is doing to the Canada Elections Act I want to hear from you. Post a comment below or send me an email (you can get it by clicking on my profile), a tweet @mark_watton or a message on Facebook.
