Election Diary from Nomination Day to Election Eve
| Author | Gregory Tardi |
| Pages | 400-515 |
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15
ELECTION DIAY FROM
NOMINATION DAY
TO ELECTION EVE
DAY + 21 | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
(DAY 20 OF THE CAMPAIGN)
: Pursuant to section of the Act, this
is the closing day for the nomination of candidates to the election. Pur-
suant to section (), nominations close at p.m. e complete list of
candidates of all political parties also became available.
: Pursuant to section .() of the Act, given
certain conditions, every third party that is required to be registered
in accordance with subsection () must file an interim third-party-
expenses return in the prescribed form with the Chief Electoral Ocer.
: e Canada Elections Act requires precise information for
the registration of individuals as candidates for an election. e most
important element of the registration process is the candidate’s name,
as that will appear on the ballot. ere is some room for the use of
1 www.cbc.ca/news/politics/deadline-candidates-nomination-parties-election-1.5302061;
www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=med&document=oct0319b&dir=pre&lang=e#top.
2 www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=can&dir=cand/lst&document=index&lang=e.
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Election Diary from Nomination Day to Election Eve
abbreviation of a formal name, or for the use of some nicknames. e
precise provision is worth showing.
66 (1) A nomination paper shall be in the prescribed form and include
(a) a solemn declaration, in the prescribed form, made by the prospective
candidate of
(i) his or her name, address and occupation,
(i.1) any other name by which he or she is commonly known — other
than a name that could be confused with the name of a political
party — and that he or she wishes to appear on the ballot instead of
the name referred to in subparagraph (i),
Most candidates do not willfully try to mislead the electorate about
themselves, but there are exceptions. In the electoral district of Beauce,
Québec, the leader of the People’s Party, Maxime Bernier, was a candidate.
It was not a matter of coincidence that on the same ballot that would
bear Mr Bernier’s name, there also appeared another Maxime Bernier,
the candidate of the Rhinoceros Party. e presumption must be allowed
that in order to be able to do this, the candidate of the Rhinoceros Party
went to the trouble of a change of name pursuant to the Civil Code. As it
would turn out, neither Bernier was elected. e Conservative candidate
obtained , votes; the People’s Party candidate received , votes;
the Rhinoceros candidate was preferred by , electors. As the dier-
ence between the Conservative and the People’s Party was far greater than
the number of votes given to the Rhinoceros, Mr Bernier of the People’s
Party could not allege that the confusion caused him to lose.
: e Voter Information Cards (VIC) were
put in the mail by Elections Canada. ese cards are the best and sim-
plest forms of identification when an elector presents themselves at the
polls. ese are the cards referred to in sections and of the Act.
e Elections Canada website contains a specific section that lists various
ways electors are legally able to identify themselves at the polling places.
: In its editorial of September , The Hill Times
focused on the fate of tax credits: in other words, it centred its attention
on the reform of the Income Tax Act. It is interesting to note that the editor
never mentioned the statute by name; yet the decision on any change to
3 www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=vote&dir=vic&document=index&lang=e.
4 www.elections.ca/content2.aspx?section=id&document=index&lang=e.
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ANATOMY F AN ELECTION
the plethora of possible benefits and deductions can be accomplished
only by tabling amendments to the Income Tax Act in the House of Com-
mons, obtaining the consent of Parliament and only then having the
Canada Revenue Agency do the administrative work. A political idea, no
matter how useful, does not automatically come to legal fruition. Turn-
ing such ideas into promises is risky, in the sense that no one can fore-
cast whether Parliament will enact them.
Cutting taxes should help everyone, or if not, those who need the help, with
no strings attached. The Liberals delivered on this principle with the Canada
Child Benet, the Conservatives under Stephen Harper with a cut to the GST.
The Liberals’ “middle-class tax cut” favoured higher earning families, but at
least it didn’t have extra strings attached.
With a plethora of intelligent advisers, neither party can claim ignor-
ance when it comes to good tax policy. Rather, they are trying to use the tax
system to manipulate and segment the electorate for their political benet.
They should scrap those promises, and focus on actions that will benet the
whole country.5
e concept of adjusting taxes so the system benefits all citizens is essen-
tially sound.
— : At the outset of the campaign, the
matter of gun control, especially the matter of what legislative tools should
be used to achieve greater control of the street use of lethal weapons and
to reduce civic violence, was likely secondary. As a result of several
shootings, especially in Toronto and in the belt, gun control became
ever more prominent. Much of the discussion was about the idea in
principle: could the reduction in the number of available guns, or could
the restriction in the types of weapons available for purchase, reduce
violence, especially in large urban areas? Not many citizens and elec-
tors focused on the necessary legislative measures to get this done. How-
ever, one group that played a prominent role in the public discussion
was the medical community. At a public meeting, doctors were blunt in
their assessment of the prime minister’s initial proposals. ere was a
possibility that a permissive approach would enable individual cities to
adopt anti-firearms measures. at could potentially leave Canada with
a patchwork of rules in various places. Doctors were prone to want more
5 “Scrap the Stupid Tax Credits” The Hill Times (30 September 2019) 8.
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