In a case called Knox v. the Conservative Party of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada said:
Simply because a decision impacts a broad segment of the public does not mean that it is public in the administrative law sense of the term. Again, judicial review is about the legality of state decision making.
Is not necessarily appropriate in the case of the internal operation of a political party. I think last week's events in Hong Kong highlight this even more. The Government of Hong Kong was attacking the Democratic Party in Hong Kong because of some internal elections that were taking place.
I think the decisions on Knox in the Court of Appeal of Alberta and the Longley case in the Court of Appeal for Ontario, in my view, support the view that the Chief Electoral Officer should not be given authority over the internal operations of a political party. The regulatory arm of the state—in this case, the Chief Electoral Officer—should kick in at nomination. When you have an individual presenting their name for election, that's the time when the regulatory regime should step in. Before that, in my view, it should not.