Elections Canada is set to recommend tighter rules for political parties’ nominations after a federal inquiry referred to the contests as a “gateway” for foreign interference.
Documents published by the Foreign Interference Commission Tuesday afternoon suggest Elections Canada expects to publish the recommendations, including greater transparency measures and stronger enforcement of party rules, by the end of September.
Nominations, where candidates vie for the chance to run under a party’s banner, typically receive less public and media scrutiny than elections or byelections. A significant number of nomination contests for the upcoming general election are already in the books.
But they’ve become a central element of the foreign interference probe after allegations, first reported by Global News in November 2022, that affiliates People’s Republic of China (PRC) intervened in the Liberal Party’s 2019 nomination contest in Toronto’s Don Valley North riding.
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The independent elections agency will not, however, take a direct hand in administering …