Elections Canada
During the 1997 Canadian federal election, there were many issues related to
the use of the Internet by political parties, candidates and individual Canadians.
The Canada Elections Act regulates the conduct of federal elections. The Act
restricts the ability of parties, candidates, the news media and others to convey
certain information to members of the public at certain times. The Act does not
refer specifically to the Internet, and Elections Canada needed to explore the
implications of the Internet to the application of the Act.
IME produced a study of the application of the Canada Elections Act to various
uses of the Internet. We examined the Act's restrictions on “publishing,” “advertising,”
“broadcasting” and its applicability to the Internet. We then looked at the nature
of Internet technology and the culture and attitudes of Internet users, and the
challenges of accountability and enforcement.
