Roundup: The problem with paper candidates

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Yesterday, the quixotic Jean-François Party released a rare bilingual statement to decry the use of “paper candidates,” citing a case of a Green candidate from BC who had never visited the riding he or she is contesting in Quebec. If there was to be a cautionary tale around the use of paper candidates, it should have been with both the NDP in the 2011 federal election, and more recently in the Alberta provincial election. In both cases, paper candidates accidentally got elected in popular “waves” where it was clear that the voters of Quebec and Alberta were motivated to vote for the party for their particular reasons (affection for Layton in 2011, anger with the Progressive Conservatives in Alberta this year). In both cases, some less than stellar MPs/MLAs were accidentally elected – one of them, incidentally, joined the Jean-François Party. While Jean-François Party co-founder (and now party president and candidate) Jean-François Larose was one of those NDP MPs who was part of the sweep, then-fellow NDP MP Manon Perreault was an example of how a paper candidate turns out to be trouble. Over the course of the 41st parliament, Perreault was charged and convicted of criminal mischief when she falsely accused an assistant of theft, and was also later investigated by the RCMP for problems with travel claims expenses (though I’m not sure we heard the outcome of said investigation). Nevertheless, she was turfed from the NDP caucus during her trial, and after the writ dropped, she joined the Jean-François Party. So really, that the party is now coming out against paper candidates when their very existence is dependent on the victory of such candidates is curious. The problem, however, is that the parties have an incentive to create these candidates, and that incentive is that running full slates, regardless if those candidates have ever been to those ridings or not, allows them to claim the maximum spending cap. Hence, as especially in Quebec in 2011, ridings which barely had NDP riding associations all accepted the “nominations” of those paper candidates which included Ruth Ellen Brosseau and the McGill Four, because the NDP wanted their spending cap. So what to do about it? It’s a sticky situation because it would seem the answer is to remove the incentive of the spending cap, but how does one enforce that the candidates have actually been to the riding, or are actually campaigning? Do we really want Elections Canada to become an intrusive body to not only poke their heads into the party nomination process and to check up on those candidates in the ridings? It’s hard to say. I do think that paper candidates are an affront to our democratic system, but without turning Elections Canada into Big Brother, I’m at a loss as to a workable solution.

On the campaign:

  • Stephen Harper promised more help for the auto sector.
  • Thomas Mulcair reiterated his healthcare plans.
  • Justin Trudeau highlighted how his plan would help with child poverty.

Good reads:

  • Rosemary Barton had a sit-down with Stephen Harper, who floated the idea that they would look at Quebec’s legislation on banning niqabs in the public service.
  • Kady O’Malley looks at the parliamentary changes the Liberals are proposing in their platform.
  • The Canadian Forces still haven’t finished replacing a part that once caused a CF-18 to crash, and may not have them all replaced for three more years.
  • The election is turning veterans groups against one another.
  • Harper is characterizing the armoured vehicle contract with Saudi Arabia as “transport vehicles,” not arms.
  • After promising to fix the immigration system (that they broke), backlogs have risen dramatically over the last four years. Go figure.
  • The “barbaric cultural practices tip line” is likely to backfire and not actually help abused immigrant women, say those who work with them.
  • The Canadian Press’ Baloney Meter™ checks Harper’s statement that marijuana is “infinitely worse” than tobacco. (Spoiler: It’s a lot of baloney).
  • Shannon Gormley responds to the critics of bringing in more Syrian refugees to Canada.

Odds and ends:

A Conservative candidate has been found to be promoting “conversion therapy” to turn gay youth straight (and has since been dumped).

Another Conservative candidate – a science teacher – insists nature absorbs oil spills, while another considered the creation of Nunavut a “failure.”

The Crown is looking to increase Michael Sona’s sentence. Sona is appealing the sentence but not the conviction.