A limit on negative ads?

 There's an old joke about dogs -- I won't repeat it here -- and the punchline is: Because they can.

Apparently the Liberals have decided that this is also the reason that Conservatives have launched negative-ad campaigns in the recent and not-so-recent past. Because they can.  While election campaigns are governed by strict limits on ad spending, there are no such limits on advertisements launched in between elections. Conceivably, the Tories could spend millions and millions of dollars if they wanted.

So   this afternoon  in the Senate, Liberals have put forward a bill that is designed to make Conservatives think twice about those between-election ads.  Put simply, if those ads are unleashed within three months of an election, they would count under the strict limits of election campaigns.  

Here's the clause-by-clause explanation of what the Liberals are proposing to change in the Canada Elections Act.  Download ELECTIONADSLAW

Given that it was introduced in the Senate, by an opposition party, its chances of becoming law are remote, by the way.

Comments

[woods]

Clearly our laws are inconsistent. Harper controlled the timing of the last election (despite his so-called fixed election date law) and, because of that, could easily have ads ready to go pre-election to boost his advertising above that allowed during the election. He did this by releasing his sweater ads outside of the time period where spending is controlled, but close enough so that to voters there was little difference whether it was pre or during. This shows how ineffective our current laws are.

However, I don't think there is any chance of getting more consistent laws while Harper is PM. His fixed election date law, touted as significant electoral reform, shows that for Harper laws are political tools and do not respect principles of consistency, transparency and fairness.