I don't imagine them sending out election campaign four-by-fours to Elections Canada saying, “This is my election sign.” This is overwhelmingly digital, and so Elections Canada keeps a digital copy of the ad.
I think this has two effects. One, if people know they have to deposit those with Elections Canada, maybe it keeps some folks away from doing the darker side of politics.
Two, if something does go wrong, or an election is held in some controversy, we're able to pull back the ads that were run in that campaign, or by that social media agency, or by that person in this case, and say that there was a coordinated effort amongst 40 people within this riding to all spend $450 on the same ad, but nobody has the repository as it is right now. So, you just had $4,500 coordinated out into targeted social media, as long as the company doesn't have three million views a month. That's the way to get around it and it's a relatively significant loophole, as opposed to me doing my ad, pressing send, Canada Elections...that's the law. It requires Elections Canada to hold it.