Green Party victory: government amends Election Act to return candidate deposits
Tuesday November 18, 2008
Millvale - With the first reading last week of an act to amend the Election Act, the Green Party of PEI is claiming a victory for democracy and the rights of small parties to not be financially penalized for participating in democracy.
The amendment will strike down an unconstitutional provision allowing government to seize the $200 candidate deposit from every candidate who does not get at least half as many votes as the winning candidate.
The same act will make candidates get 25 nomination signatures from voters, up from the current 10. This is out of line with more progressive legislation in other provinces and serves no useful purpose, stated the Green Party.
"The Green Party appealed to Premier Ghiz immediately after the election to return candidate deposits," says Green Party leader Sharon Labchuk. "It's too bad we had to retain a lawyer and threaten legal action before this issue caught his attention."
Similar provisions in Canada's and Ontario's election acts were held unconstitutional in two separate decisions of the Superior Court of Ontario in 1999 and 2007. The courts found that such deposit requirements interfered with the rights of candidates and supporters of small parties to participate in elections and contravened the electoral fairness required by section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Labchuk said that while the the amendment will remove one barrier to small parties attempting to grow, the PEI Election Act is in desperate need of revision.
"Compared to other provinces, PEI has one of the most undemocratic election acts in the country. You'd almost think it was written to exclude participation by new parties," says Labchuk. "For example, the Green Party of PEI is the only party in the history of Canada forced to pay $1000 to register as a new party. The other provinces don't even charge a fee. We requested a refund from both the Binns and Ghiz governments in the spirit of fairness but got no response."
Labchuk said the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that elections act requirements that interfere with the rights of smaller political parties to play a meaningful role in the electoral process contravene the Charter.
"The Green Party will be pushing hard to revise PEI's Election Act so that the rights of smaller parties and their supporters are upheld. Old-line parties dominate Island politics only because our laws stack the deck in their favour," said Labchuk. "The Act is full of unfair provisions, like unlimited campaign donations from corporations, unions and non-residents which aren't allowed in some other provinces and at the federal level" said Labchuk.
"In particular, we'll focus on radically reducing allowable campaign spending limits so that they're comparable to what candidates and parties are permitted to spend in other provinces and in federal elections," said Labchuk. "In the Superior Court of Ontario case, the judge said that effective communication requires money, and those having access to the most money may be able to monopolize the election discourse. We saw this in the last election when the Liberals absolutely hammered Islanders with expensive advertizing."