Cowichan-Malahat-Langford NDP Member of Parliament Alistair MacGregor is pleased with the progress of a “common-sense proposal” related to election periods.
On April 30 in Ottawa, MacGregor saw elements of his proposed Private Member’s Bill, C-279, incorporated into the Liberal government’s changes to the Elections Act, Bill C-76 when it was introduced.
His goal is to tighten up election lengths and in doing so save a lot of money.
“While we are still evaluating C-76 more broadly, it is good to see that the government has seen fit to include this common-sense proposal from the NDP that will go a long way towards ensuring our elections are conducted on a more level playing field,” MacGregor said. “After the marathon 78-day federal election campaign in 2015, I tabled legislation that would limit the length of federal election periods to a maximum of 46 days,” said MacGregor.
He noted the length of the 2015 campaign resulted in the costliest election campaign in Canadian history “with political parties and third-party actors being allowed to spend millions more to bombard electors with their messages. It also cost Elections Canada $443 million to administer the election, $150 million more than 2011.”
MacGregor said the “spirit” of his legislation has been incorporated, with a 50-day cap on election periods and with more spending restrictions on political parties and third-party spenders.
