Lessons Learned - Third Party Advertising in the 2018 Municipal Election

Effective April 1, 2018, amendments to the Municipal Elections Act set out rules for third party advertising in municipal elections. Among other requirements, individuals, corporations and trade unions were required to register with the City Clerk in order to accept contributions or spend money on advertisements to support, promote or oppose a municipal candidate during an election period. City Council had authorized the City Solicitor to retain an external law firm for related investigations, legal proceedings and enforcement recommendations pertaining to third party advertising. Accordingly, the City Clerk, City Solicitor and City Manager implemented a procedure to support voluntary compliance and escalate complex third party advertising complaints to the external law firm. It served as a compliance mechanism in addition to existing statutory measures (i.e. Compliance Audit Committee for campaign finance matters; Municipal Licensing and Standards for election sign bylaw infractions). For the 2018 municipal election, a total of twelve third party advertisers registered with the City Clerk and eight formal complaints were received. The three key lessons learned during the 2018 municipal election include that: (1) the City Clerk's education and awareness efforts supported voluntary compliance by registered third party advertisers; (2) external legal counsel provided expertise and impartial investigation and recommendations for compliance; and (3) a few legislative amendments may assist with clarifying enforcement.