Sunday, September 13, 2015

The Canada Election Act, Stephen Harper and Lynton Crosby

On September 10th, 2015, the Harper campaign announced that it had called upon one Lynton Crosby to save the Prime Minister's foundering campaign.  As we are all now aware, Mr. Crosby is an Australian political "wizard" who has been brought aboard a sinking ship to help the Conservative Party to regain their footing and stop their slide in the polls.  Mr. Crosby has a long political history, working with the Conservatives in the United Kingdom and the Liberals in Australia along with two election campaigns Mayor of London.  Like his new Canadian political bedfellow, Lynton Crosby studied economics and turned to politics, starting his career as a political aide.

Here's what the U.K.'s Channel 4 had to say about Mr. Crosby:


Now, let's take a look at Canada's Election Act which states the following under Section 331:


So, is it possible to explain why Mr. Crosby's presence in the Harper campaign is legal under Canadian electoral law, particularly given that the Harper government should be intimately acquainted with   the minutia of Canadian election laws after introducing the Fair Elections Act in 2014?

Or, is this just another case of "do what I say, not what I do"?

1 comment:

  1. My guess is that it is because Crosby is only providing advice to the Harper campaign, not actually interacting with voters and causing them to vote/not vote.

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