Election Laws

Here we go:  The federal election is next week.  There are a few things you need to remember as you assess your position.

Remember Ontario case last year, which ruled that politicians cannot be sued for breaking election promises.

The court said:

“In the course of election campaigns politicians and their parties present their election platform to the electorate. In so doing they commonly make promises and pledge that they will or will not do various things if and when they are elected.  It is hoped that, if elected, the politicians and their parties will keep their promises and will follow through with the pledges given. This said, however, few people would consider that all of the promises made and pledges given constitute legally binding agreements between the candidate and the elector or electors to whom these promises or pledges were made.”

All those promises of new spending, tax breaks, GST reductions, etc. are worthless.  Remember Jean Chretien’s infamous promise:  “The GST:  we’ll kill it.”  They realized that it would cost billions in lost tax revenue, so they reneged on that promise.  He was re-elected nonetheless. Keep that in mind when you contemplate Mr. Harper’s promise to cut the GST to 5%.

That doesn’t mean that the politicians are lying to you.  Mr. Harper may well intend to cut the GST.  He may well do it if he is elected.  It just means that, if a politician is elected on the basis of certain promises, you will have to wait four years or so to punish them for it. 

Another thing to remember:  Elections Canada has some pretty strange rules on what you cannot do with your ballot.  Eating it, for example, is illegal.  My recollection from the last election is that the ballot did not look terribly appetizing. 

There are people who like to refuse to vote or destroy their ballot in a self-described political protest.  Many of these people are, not surprisingly, among those people who complain about politicians and political parties.  My opinion is that, unless you vote, you have lost the right to complain for the next four years. 

There used to be a law preventing the media from broadcasting results before all the polls were closed.  This meant that TV viewers in BC would turn on the tube and would see (often) that the election was already a done deal.  That left the voters in the West feeling somewhat unimportant.

That law was challenged as an unreasonable restriction on freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

The result is also a little disturbing.  Let’s assume that the election is a nail-biter.  The Western voters can look to see what is happening BEFORE they go out to vote.  They now have the opportunity to vote to change the outcome.  That now puts the voters in BC in a position of power, as opposed to a position of simply being told how the rest of the country has voted as soon as they turn on the tube.

Go Vote!