Internet advertising to fall under Elections Canada rules; new law expected by May

A bill to be passed in Parliament shortly will usher Canada's federal election laws into cyberspace while regulators south of the border still struggle with the changes technology has wrought. The new rules will result in Internet service providers being subject to the same guidelines for election advertising as broadcasters and print media. Government house leader Don Boudria told Canadian NEW MEDIA the changes were necessary to reflect the altered landscape of the technological world. Previous versions of the Elections Act did not even permit a candidate for federal office to file via a fax machine. The bill has passed through the House of Commons and is approaching a vote in the Senate. Royal assent is expected shortly afterwards. One important amendment is to lessen the blackout time on advertising before an election is held. When the bill becomes law, probably by mid-May, parties will be prohibited from advertising for 24 hours before the vote. This ban applies to all forms of advertising be it broadcast, print or online. This is the first time banner ads on Internet sites have been placed under the restriction. "From midnight the night before, you're not supposed to advertise," the minister explains. "So all you have to do is deactivate your site for the day." In the US, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) is currently studying the explosive growth in the use of the Internet by political candidates. It initially decreed that online speech must comply with American political regulations. But the present laws are so vague when it comes to new media, the FEC called for interventions to discuss the matter. It expects to present preliminary recommendations in June. Public reaction to those recommendations will then take another month. If anyone challenges the final rules in court, the proposals would not be in effect by the time Americans go to the polls on November 7. Boudria agrees the Internet has grown in popularity but says it's not a major factor for Canadian political parties just yet. "There's no doubt an advertisement in the newspaper on the Saturday or a television spot on the Saturday or a radio spot on the Saturday before an election is a lot different than having something on your Internet site," he states. "The amount of visibility is considerably higher for the other medium. But at the rate of growth we're experiencing now, three years from now what I'm saying now may actually sound funny." Internet becoming more strategic to campaigns The government bill will also place outside groups under the jurisdiction of Elections Canada. "The third party is subject to similar rules to a candidate," the minister says. "The threshold is different for advertising, the amounts are different and so on, but in terms of the limits, it's the same." The groups would also have to respect the blackouts imposed on advertising. There is an anti-collusion provision in the legislation that would insure third party campaigners are truly independent from any political party or candidate. That last issue could prove to be the undoing of the FEC's approach. The US Supreme Court has struck down several attempts to regulate third party advertising. In the recent primaries, supporters of Arizona senator John McCain charged people with connections to Texas governor George W. Bush-orchestrated advertising campaigns to smear the Republican insurgent. Canadian courts have allowed some limitations to be placed on outside parties participating in general elections. Boudria believes the changes currently before Parliament were done in such a way as to cause the least disruption. "We tried to avoid these things right now that could potentially cause us problems in the very near future." Canadians can no longer use a conventional ruler to measure the political scene, he added. "I tried to modernize the law to the best that we could and even I recognize that what's in there, the new communications mechanisms in the future will tell us there's still more improvement to come." In the last federal election, all of the major parties and several of the minor ones had Internet addresses where voters could learn more about the party platforms, read the leaders' speeches and find out who their local candidates were. The parties still maintain those sites between elections to promote their viewpoints. One of the current election battlegrounds employing cyberspace is the race to lead the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. Alberta treasurer Stockwell Day has a web site (www.stockwellday.com) with flashy graphics and a secure method of donating money to his campaign. The site for Reform's Preston Manning (www.pmforpm .com) is somewhat more subdued.

Internet advertising to fall under Elections Canada rules; new law expected by May

News | 04/06/2000 4:00 am EDT

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