Trudeau's limiting citizen activism
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government recently passed more than 200 pages of dramatic changes to the way Canadian elections work. Among other things, the new rules will further restrain the degree that Canadians can exercise their constitutional rights to free political speech and activism. Such regulations were passed with the standard progressive smugness that heavily regulating political speech and activity in the name of fairness and equality is unambiguously virtuous. Righteous self-confidence, however, does not negate the practical consequences of this fundamentally illiberal exercise of state power.
Thanks to these amendments and others, the Canada Elections Act is now impossibly long and frighteningly intimidating. Any Canadian who plans to exert any significant expense or effort in persuading his or her fellow citizens to vote one way or another in next year's election should immediately retain a team of lawyers and accountants, as there is simply no other way to navigate the dense brush of legal weeds that now govern election-adjacent democratic participation in Canada. Rule-breakers can expect thousands of dollars in fines or even prison time.
Things will almost certainly get worse. The paradoxical dream of a perfectly controlled democracy that inspired Trudeau's Elections Modernization Act (and the many terrible prior election laws it builds upon) is a fundamentally authoritarian project forever finding fresh justification to further constrain citizens' rights.
https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/opinion/editorial/trudeau-s-limiting-citizen-activism-1.23563670