Mr. Chair, I would start by quoting a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Harper decision, going back to 2004, and that was Mr. Justice Bastarache writing for the majority. What he said was this: “For spending limits to be fully effective, they must apply to all possible election expenses...”. The regime that we have for third parties was passed more than 15 years ago, and yet we very well know it only applies to what is referred to as “election advertising” as defined in the act. That is pretty narrow and pretty limited, and that is the production, if you will, of advertising material and the purchase of the means necessary to transmit such materials. All kinds of other things are simply not covered at this point in time.
As I said at the Senate committee, we have received a fairly significant number of complaints, way more than we had for the previous general election. People complained that third parties in this last election did all kinds of things that had, they allege, an impact on the electoral results, and that this was not fair. What I said at the Senate committee, and what I said this morning here, is that I think that 15 or 17 years after the regime was adopted, the time has come for Parliament and for you, members of Parliament, to think about this. If we really have in mind to maintain a level playing field, should more be done with a view to addressing the role that third parties have played and, I would assume, are probably likely to play in the next general election? To me, the question as to whether or not we still have a level playing field is really an open question, and I would urge you to consider that very, very carefully.