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Political Financing Handbook for Registered Parties and Chief Agents (EC 20231) – June 2019 – Archived Content

This document is Elections Canada's archived guideline OGI 2019-06 and is no longer in effect.

Click on the link for the latest Political Financing Handbook for Registered Parties and Chief Agents.

11. Interacting with Third Parties in the Pre-election and Election Periods

This chapter outlines what registered parties should take into consideration from a political financing perspective when interacting with third parties in the pre-election period and election period. It covers the following topics:

  • What is a third party?
  • What is collusion?
  • Prohibition on colluding with third parties during a pre-election period
  • Prohibition on colluding with third parties during an election period
  • What is collusion for the purpose of influencing a third party's regulated activities?

Note: This chapter applies only to the pre-election and election periods, but registered parties should be mindful of how they interact with third parties at all times to avoid accepting possibly ineligible or illegal contributions. See Activities conducted by others in coordination with the party may be contributions in Chapter 2, Contributions.

What is a third party?

A third party is generally a person or group that wants to participate in or influence elections other than as a political party, electoral district association, nomination contestant or candidate. The term has different legal definitions in the pre-election period and election period, as explained in the prohibition sections below.

What is collusion?

The Canada Elections Act sets rules on how registered parties can interact with third parties during a pre-election period or election period. It specifically prohibits collusion with a third party.

Collusion is generally an agreement made between two or more people or groups to achieve an objective prohibited by law. The agreement does not have to be made in writing, and may be express or implied.

Prohibition on colluding with third parties in relation to a pre-election period

During a pre-election period, a third party is a person or group other than a:

  • registered or eligible party
  • registered association
  • potential candidate
  • nomination contestant

A registered party must not collude with a third party in order to:

  • circumvent the registered party's partisan advertising expenses limit, or
  • influence the third party in its partisan activities, its partisan advertising or its election surveys conducted during a pre-election period, including by sharing information

See Chapter 7, Partisan Advertising Expenses for the Pre-election Period, for more information on the pre-election period and partisan advertising rules.

Prohibition on colluding with third parties in relation to an election period

During an election period, a third party is a person or group other than a:

  • registered party
  • electoral district association of a registered party
  • candidate

A registered party must not collude with a third party in order to:

  • circumvent the registered party's election expenses limit, or
  • influence the third party in its partisan activities, its election advertising or its election surveys conducted during an election period, including by sharing information

What is collusion for the purpose of influencing a third party's regulated activities?

Any agreement, express or implied, between a registered party and a third party that has the objective of influencing a third party's regulated activities is prohibited by these provisions.

However, where a third party independently engages in activities that result from agreeing with a party's or candidate's platform, this is not collusion. In such a case, although there is agreement on policy goals, there is no agreement about the regulated activities of the third party. In addition, simple communication by a party to a third party of the party's policies or positions on an issue is not collusion, as there is no discussion about the activities a third party should undertake. Mere interaction without a common intent to influence a third party's activities is not collusion.

Each situation must be examined on its own facts.

Examples
  1. A registered party emails a third party with a promotional message and asks it to cut, paste and send the message to voters on its contact list on the Thursday before advance polls. The third party declines the request. Agreeing to send this email would be collusion because the information was shared to influence the third party's regulated activity.
  2. A registered party emails a third party and asks it to support the party's campaign. Some of the party's key platform messages are included in the email. The third party decides that it wishes to support the party and does so by forwarding the platform messages to its contact list. This is not prohibited because there was no agreement between the party and third party about the third party's regulated activity.
  3. A registered party meets with a third party to inform the third party of its policy on a particular matter. After the meeting, the third party decides to share this information with voters on its contact list and to run ads supporting the party. This is not prohibited because there was no agreement between the party and third party about the third party's regulated activities.
  4. A third party is organizing its annual BBQ during the election period. It informs the party of the event date in case the party leader or others wish to attend. This is not prohibited because the event is going ahead without any input from the party, and there was therefore no agreement between the party and the third party about its regulated activities.
  5. A third party contacts the registered party to find out where to direct volunteers to help canvass for the registered party. The registered party asks that volunteers contact the party's volunteer coordinator so that they can canvass as members of the registered party's own campaign. If the third party wants to canvass using its own messages and resources, the registered party cannot provide strategic information on where to canvass. This would be collusion to influence the third party's regulated activity.
  6. A third party contacts a registered party and offers to pay for get-out-the-vote activities if the party is near its limit. The registered party cannot accept this offer. This would be collusion to circumvent the election expenses limit.
  7. A registered party contacts a third party and provides a list of candidate campaigns that need funds. The third party calls its supporters and asks them to make contributions to these candidates. This is prohibited because the registered party shared strategic information with the third party to influence the third party's regulated activity.