New pre-election spending rules seem designed to benefit incumbent Liberals

By Rob Breakenridge

Whatever case can be made for federal investment in an extension of Montreal’s subway system, the prime minister’s announcement this past week raises some questions.

For one: why now? Did they really just decide in the last few days that they needed to contribute $1.3 billion to this project, which doesn’t even have a final price tag? That seems hard to believe. Two: why did it necessitate bringing the prime minister to Montreal? The announcement could have been made in Ottawa, could have been made in a press release, or could have been made by another government representative.

One suspects that there was more to this decision than simply the merits of this particular transit project. Clearly, there was political value in having Justin Trudeau in Montreal pledging a significant amount of money to a project in that city, which is, of course, contingent on Trudeau’s re-election in the October election. So while this was dressed up as government business, it was basically a campaign promise from the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

We are not yet officially into an election campaign, but we are essentially into the election pre-season. Under the definition laid out by the Liberal government’s own Election Modernization Act, the “pre-writ” period came into effect as of June 30 – just a few days before Trudeau’s announcement. Moreover, the Montreal announcement is hardly the only example of this.

The significance of the pre-writ period is that as of June 30, political parties are constrained in the amount of money they can spend on advertising – no more than $2 million. So it certainly seems like a contradiction that the Liberals believe that political messaging should be limited during this period, yet they are essentially in campaign mode themselves, ensuring that their political message reaches as many Canadians as possible.

It’s disingenuous, too, because while ostensibly the Liberals are under the same constraints as the other parties, the various tools of government are not available to those other parties. Why should the Liberals bother with an ad campaign in Montreal to tout a promise of new subway funding when the prime minister can fly his government jet into town for an official government announcement?

If the Conservatives or NDP wish to convey their position on this matter to voters in Montreal, they will have to get a little more creative, while of course being mindful of the rules of this pre-writ period. This hardly seems fair.

full story at https://globalnews.ca/news/5466436/new-pre-election-spending-rules-benefit-liberals/