'Third parties' hope to influence voters; Advocate for issues - Infomart - 0 views
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National Post Thu Aug 20 2015
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Dozens of groups with their own political agendas could spend millions in this federal election campaign trying to influence voters. These "third parties" (they aren't political parties) are registered to advocate and run advertising during the federal election campaign. Their goals include: boosting funding for the CBC; improving seniors' care; restoring door-to-door mail delivery; securing better services for veterans; electoral reform in Canada; and strategic voting, to name a few. "The outcome of the election is going to come down to a handful of Conservative swing ridings, so we're trying to build blocks of voters to vote together to defeat the Conservatives," said Amara Possian, election campaign manager with Leadnow, an organization calling for action on climate change, democracy and the economy. The group's entire campaign is about channelling resources from what she says is a 450,000-person community across the country into ridings that can influence the outcome of the federal election.
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There are 72 Conservative swing ridings where the group believes people who want change can, by voting together, determine whether a Tory candidate wins or loses. Leadnow has teams in a dozen ridings going door-to-door signing people up to vote: Fredericton, Kitchener Centre, London North Centre, Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Eglinton-Lawrence, Willowdale, Elmwood-Transcona, Saskatoon-University, Calgary Centre, Edmonton Griesbach, Vancouver-Granville and Port Moody-Coquitlam. The Canada Elections Act regulates third parties that conduct election advertising. A third party "is considered a person or a group other than a candidate, registered party, or electoral district association of a registered party," according to Elections Canada. There are no rules on how much third parties can spend on advertising before the official start of an election campaign. Each third party can spend up to $439,410.81 on election advertising expenses during the 78-day campaign, and a maximum $8,788.22 in any one of the 338 electoral districts.
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