ELECTORAL FINANCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
significant shift from internal control of finances by political parties to increased oversight by Elections Canada - Canada’s independent, non-partisan agency responsible for
conducting federal elections and referendums.
The new legislation also introduced the first federal rules concerning third-party spending. Prior to 2000, third- party spending was neither regulated nor monitored, and was not defined in Canadian legislation. The new law defined third parties, placed limits on their spending and established reporting requirements.
Taking ‘Big Money’ Out of the Equation
In 2004, further changes were introduced that focused on how political parties were
funded, namely by banning most corporate and union contributions. The amounts corporations and trade unions could contribute were restricted to a maximum of C$1,000 in total to candidates and parties. At the same time, a public funding regime was introduced to compensate for the limits on these donations. This featured an annual per-vote subsidy (also known as the quarterly allowance) to registered parties. They would receive C$1.75 per vote received by the party in the previous general election, provided the party received either 2% of the valid votes cast nationally or 5% of the votes in the ridings where the party ran candidates. Additionally, the rates of reimbursements for registered political parties and candidates for election period
expenses were increased. A change in government in 2006 led to another wave of changes. The newly elected government of Stephen Harper introduced the Federal Accountability Act. In addition to providing new measures to address accountability, transparency and oversight, the Act banned all corporate and union contributions. As a result, only individuals may contribute to political campaigns in Canada. This rule remains intact today and is key to Canada’s electoral finance regime.
In 2008, the minority
government of Stephen Harper tried to end the per-vote subsidy. This led to a political crisis when the opposition parties threatened to defeat the government. After Prime Minister Harper won a majority
Above: Election campaigning underway in Canada.
in 2011, the Canada Elections Act was amended to phase out the per-vote subsidy to political parties by January 2015. At the subsidy programme’s peak in 2011, Canada’s five major parties received over C$28M in public subsidies combined.1
In 2014, the
programme’s final year, the five major parties received C$9M combined.2
Because of the
changes, political parties have had to adjust their fundraising methods. These campaigns are conducted throughout the year, not only during electoral periods. Further amendments in 2011 increased transparency and placed restrictions on political loans. Under these restrictions,
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