Yes, and they can sign up as a third-party activist.
So we would have a situation where one party might have a war chest ready to go. I know they're not supposed to spend money directly, but we have fairly loose rules here. We might have three regions where they might not stand a chance of winning any of the seats, so just before the election they would appoint a whole bunch of candidates, and then in an area where they think they could win, they would announce one of these consultation, dealer's choice processes. The election financing rules could really skew the local elections, because we'd have the possible use of phone banks; we'd have the party acting as a third party...all the money that they wouldn't be allowed to spend in local elections.... We just have to look at how much they got themselves into with the in-and-out scandal. This would certainly be a huge way for a party to potentially influence regional elections.
What kinds of rules would we need in place to ensure that this kind of attitude and that kind of behaviour wouldn't cut it? The argument I hear from the government is, “Trust us; the Prime Minister wouldn't do that”. That's a joke. This is 2008; we didn't just come off the turnip truck. We need clear rules here.
So what rules would you suggest to ensure that this kind of behaviour wouldn't be gotten away with?