Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government recently passed more than 200 pages of dramatic changes to the way Canadian elections work. Among other things, the new rules will further restrain the degree that Canadians can exercise their constitutional rights to free political speech and activism. Such regulations were passed with the standard progressive smugness that heavily regulating political speech and activity in the name of fairness and equality is unambiguously virtuous. Righteous self-confidence, however, does not negate the practical consequences of this fundamentally illiberal exercise of state power.
Trudeau’s final bill represents no improvement from the draconian first draft introduced in April. According to the Democratic Institutions ministry, the new legislation seeks to ensure that “political actors” operate on a “fair and level playing field,” and will impose “reasonable limits” on their budgets. Translated to English, this means government has devised new ways to punish politically motivated groups of Canadians, be they environmentalists, social conservatives, business or labor leaders, minority rights’ activists or anything in between, who engage in activities such as advertising or “canvassing door-to-door, making telephone calls to electors and organizing rallies” without first conforming to Ottawa’s rules.
Canada’s formal “election period” is now capped at 50 days before election day, with the two months or so before comprising a novel “pre-election” period as well. During “pre-election” time — a concept that has no democratic rationale beyond government’s expansive appetite to control political activity — so-called third parties are treated with as much suspicion as during the tightly regulated elections themselves. Groups and individuals may not spend more than $700,000 on “partisan activities” and “partisan advertising” during this period, and must immediately register with the government after spending their first $500. Ottawa expects a full itemized list of all revenue and expenses incurred, including the date and place of every attempt to change a mind.
Thanks to these amendments and others, the Canada Elections Actis now impossibly long and frighteningly intimidating. Any Canadian who plans to exert any significant expense or effort in persuading his or her fellow citizens to vote one way or another in next year’s election should immediately retain a team of lawyers and accountants, as there is simply no other way to navigate the dense brush of legal weeds that now govern election-adjacent democratic participation in Canada. Rule-breakers can expect thousands of dollars in fines or even prison time.
Things will almost certainly get worse. The paradoxical dream of a perfectly controlled democracy that inspired Trudeau’sElections Modernization Act (and the many terrible prior election laws it builds upon) is a fundamentally authoritarian project forever finding fresh justification to further constrain citizens’ rights.
