\n ‘There is absolutely no way to know how much money was spent.’<\/span> Two Canadian groups in particular, Dogwood Initiative, an environmental advocacy group,\u00a0and\u00a0Leadnow, a group that promoted strategic voting in the last campaign to oust vulnerable Tories, have been in the cross hairs of Conservatives\u00a0in large part because they were\u00a0partially funded by American groups. These groups sought to stop former prime minister Stephen Harper’s re-election, citing his record on environmental issues.<\/p>\n But Frum said this bill is not simply about the anti-pipeline groups that jumped into the last election to target Harper, adding it is not “paranoia”\u00a0to suggest the current loophole could be exploited by foreign governments, like Russia, to try and sway the outcome of the\u00a0election\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as they are alleged\u00a0to have done in the U.S. presidential campaign. While some Canadians might be supportive of foreigners that advance green causes here at home, “will they they care when it’s [Russian President Vladimir] Putin?<\/p>\n “This is not abstract, this a real and very serious threat to our democratic sovereignty. There was foreign influence in the last election, and there’s no doubt about that, and there will be more in the future,” Frum said.<\/p>\n As it stands, the law only prohibits third parties\u00a0from accepting non-Canadian funds if those contributions are earmarked for election advertising. If the money is collected by those Canadian-based groups more than six months before an election it is not subject to regulations, and it\u00a0“gets mingled with Canadian funds,”\u00a0something that has created a deep sense of unease among some partisans and officials alike.<\/p>\n Others have said the relatively “meagre” participation of these groups is simply the\u00a0sign of a healthy democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to records filed after the last election, roughly\u00a0$6 million was spent by 114 registered third parties during the campaign\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a number that pales in comparison to the tens of millions of dollars that were spent by the political parties. There are also limits on just how much a third party can spend to publicly advance an agenda, as they face\u00a0a relatively paltry<\/a>\u00a0$150,000\u00a0spending cap (they can also spend $4,000 to support an individual candidate in a riding).<\/p>\n Conservative Senator Linda Frum wants to stop the flow of foreign funds from potentially influencing Canadian elections. (Prime Minister’s Office)<\/p>\n But Frum\u00a0said those figures refer to spending on\u00a0advertising alone, and all other election-related expenses are unknown.<\/p>\n “There is absolutely no way to know how much money was spent by the 114 parties. Some of these third parties were very sophisticated, they understood these loopholes extremely well and exploited them to their great advantage,” she said.<\/p>\n “How do you know it wasn’t very much money, we don’t known unless Elections Canada subpoenas\u00a0their banking records, and I don’t count\u00a0on that,” she said.<\/p>\n Frum\u00a0said the current “restrictive, and old-fashioned”\u00a0law \u2014\u00a0drafted some 17 years ago \u2014\u00a0is woefully out of date as it does not consider promotional websites as a form of advertising, for example.<\/p>\n Yves C\u00f4t\u00e9, Canada’s chief elections investigator, agreed during a recent appearance before the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee, that\u00a0there is nothing to stop foreign-funded third parties from setting up election websites, conducting research, recruiting volunteers or\u00a0paying for opinion polls.<\/p>\n Third-party spending ahead of the writ period simply doesn’t have to be registered or fall within campaign limits.<\/p>\n “We have received a significant number of complaints about the involvement of third parties in connection with the 2015 general election. Common to many of these complaints was the perception that third parties, in some ridings, were so significantly involved in the electoral contest that this resulted in unfair electoral outcomes,” C\u00f4t\u00e9 said, predicting a further proliferation of third party groups during the next campaign.<\/p>\n “For that reason, it may be time for Parliament to re-examine the third-party regime that was put in place 17 years ago with a view to ensuring a level playing field is maintained for all participants.”<\/p>\n An official for Democratic Reform Minister\u00a0Karina\u00a0Gould\u00a0told CBC News on Tuesday they were aware of\u00a0Frum’s\u00a0bill,\u00a0but the minister had not yet reviewed the specifics of the\u00a0legislation.<\/p>\n Gould’s\u00a0mandate letter from the prime minister does include a commitment to review\u00a0spending limits of third parties and political parties during and between elections.<\/p>\n Last week, former Calgary Conservative MP Joan\u00a0Crockatt\u00a0filed a 36-page complaint with C\u00f4t\u00e9, alleging that she was one of the victims of foreign\u00a0interference, blaming a U.S. group called the Tides Foundation and its support of\u00a0Leadnow for her loss to Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr. Crockatt\u00a0has compiled a report on Leadnow’s\u00a0alleged influence, but has not yet shared it publicly.<\/p><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/linda-frum-foreign-funds-election-1.4138155?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Conservative Senator Linda Frum\u00a0is determined to stop the flow of foreign money into Canada for fear the funding of\u00a0third party groups is unfairly influencing\u00a0federal election campaigns, and leaving the country vulnerable to election rigging. With the federal government expected to table legislation on party fundraisers\u00a0today, the Ontario senator is pressing ahead with a\u00a0private member’s bill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-78532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n – Senator Linda Frum<\/cite>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n‘Will they care when it’s Putin?’<\/h2>\n
\n
‘Absolutely no way to know how much money was spent’<\/h2>\n
![\"linda-frum-cp-300\"](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.2160594.1397595384!\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_300\/linda-frum-cp-300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n‘Significant number of complaints’<\/h2>\n
\n