Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think it was $1.5 million.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well in the scheme of things, it's not a lot of money these days. You can buy a car maybe for half a million dollars.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It really depends on how these things are viewed. I mean, social media campaigns don't cost a lot, but they're loud, they're vocal, and they're often unrepresentative. That's a form of advertising in a way, but it is not—quote, unquote—“advertising”. There are things that ext

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Social media advertising is one thing, and that's a paid advertisement. It's knowing where things come from. Obviously if that's coming from another country, let's say, to give a good example, the NRA in the United States, it has had a significant influence on the perception by s

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Quite. There are provisions within the Canada Elections Act by which third party spending is regulated. There is provision now for covering pre-writ and writ period and third party election spending, presuming this legislation will pass. However, one of the things that I think sh

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't know that it concerns me. I think it could be in a separate bill going forward.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  [Technical difficulty—Editor] the role of the Chief Electoral Officer and Elections Canada in educating and presenting information to the public during an election. Those are the two principal ones I referenced here. As far as Bill C-23 is concerned, I should draw to your attent

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Principally. Again, we did not get to the point of having extended conversations with a constitutional lawyer about that, because the thing passed, in terms of time and so forth. We've had another election since then, with a new government being elected, which considered redres

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I lost the thread of all that, but I will point out with respect to the matter of free-time election advertising broadcasts, if you check with the Chief Electoral Officer I think you will find that it's not exactly as he described but rather that there is a provision for free-tim

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You can have a chat with the Chief Electoral Officer and examine it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If you look at my historic past.... Before political involvement, I was a DRO in two federal elections—1993 and 1997. I've acted as a voting clerk and a voting officer with Elections BC, and subsequently in provincial elections, including the last one in 2017. One of the things

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The Electoral Commission in the United Kingdom has established a base by which there is a long campaign and a short campaign period of auditing of all expenses by political parties.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We are, in Bill C-76, proposing that auditing in a new pre-writ period begin with June 30. This is a period of time that is basically the summer months in advance of the dropping of the writ, a maximum of 50 days before the call of the election. That, I don't think, is sufficient

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am with the concept that it needs to be made more effective by making it long enough so that it's not simply, in effect, that when the session ends here in June, the summer months become open season for politics. It's a useful idea to have that period subject to Elections Canad