SCC Strikes Down Ontario's Pre-Election Third-Party Political Advertising Spending Limits

More changes are coming for third parties looking to engage in Ontario elections, after the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) settled the constitutional challenge to the province's third-party pre-election political advertising restrictions.

In Ontario (Attorney General) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc. (Working Families), Canada's top court determined that Ontario's third-party spending limits on pre-election advertising were unconstitutional. A majority held that the restrictions, which capped third-party advertising spending in the 12 months preceding an election period, unjustifiably infringed the right to vote enshrined in section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) by creating a disproportionality that, on its face, allowed political parties to drown out the voices of third parties on political issues.