Premier François Legault does not see how the Chief Electoral Officer could curb advertising spending during the pre-election period.
In an interview with The Canadian Press last week, the director, Pierre Reid, said he believed that the electoral law must be tightened to put an end to what he described as an “open bar”.
Difficult indeed to escape the barrage of advertising that has been going on for a few weeks already, if not months in some cases.
These partisan advertising expenses are not accounted for, as required by law once an election is called.
While Mr. Reid said he wanted to “give everyone an equal chance”, François Legault believes, on the contrary, that this is already the case.
“It was written in the sky from the moment we put elections on a fixed date, everyone has known for a long time that there is an election on October 3. It means that all political parties are on an equal footing, ”he said Thursday, while he was in Sainte-Adèle in the Laurentians to present France-Élaine Duranceau, who will be a caquiste candidate in the Bertrand riding.
“Our business is going well”
However, he himself recognized in the same breath that this equality is only theoretical.
“There are many people who have often said that the Liberals have a war chest and always have a lot more money than the others. Well, there it is that the CAQ is fine with us, “he said, adding, however, that his party “religiously” respected the rules that partisan advertising be paid for 100% by the party and not by public funds.
But for the Prime Minister, it seems clear that wanting to regulate partisan advertising expenses before the election is called is illusory.
“If, tomorrow morning, we change the law — usually an election campaign lasts five weeks — and we say that there must be no advertising or that the costs are [comptabilisés parmi les dépenses électorales] in the ten weeks before, I predict that there are people who will advertise 11 weeks before. »
“Where do we draw the line? »
“At some point, where do you draw the line? he wondered.
“The Liberal Party released its program in the spring. We cannot prevent a political party from making its ideas known and promoting them,” concluded the Premier, visibly at ease with the current ways of doing things.
The decision to hold elections on a fixed date was mainly intended to prevent the ruling party from using its ability to call elections at the time of its choice as an electoral weapon. Some governments could thus stretch their mandates up to five years or trigger prematurely to take their adversaries by surprise.
This uncertainty made it difficult to launch pre-election advertising campaigns. One of the effects of imposing a fixed date for the elections is to allow all parties to decide to advertise well before the call, knowing when the ballot will take place, which obviously favors the parties that are better off financially. . However, it is precisely to eliminate this advantage that the rules surrounding election expenses were established, but they apply only from the moment the election is called.