First third-party advertisers out of the gate

And coming up against the challenge of new campaign finance rules, such as tighter timelines and spending caps

Good Monday morning. This is Queen’s Park Observer.

ABOVE THE FOLD

And they’re off! It may be almost a year until the 2022 election, but thanks to the new campaign finance rules — for which the PCs invoked the notwithstanding clause for the first time in provincial history — there’s a new 12-month timeline and more onerous requirements for registration. So far, 11 third-party groups have registered with Elections Ontario.

Most are already signed up because the pre-election period was doubled to 12 months and as the bar for registration is rather low — $500 spent on political advertising. I spoke with the groups to find out how they’re coping with the new lay of the land.

Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation — which is launching a Charter challenge against the PCs legislation that invoked the notwithstanding clause: “As far as our actual ad campaign, with the limited time and limited funds we have, we’re going to have to choose very wisely in order to have the best impact. Ther…