On October 25, a trial court in Alberta ruled that the Canadian election law, requiring candidates for House of Commons to pay a fee of $1,000, is unconstitutional. See this story. The law also requires 100 signatures, and that part of the law was upheld.
Any money amount which is OK ???
1 penny, 1 dollar ???
@Demo Rep,
There was a vague suggestion in the opinion that there might be an acceptable level, but that it would have to be quite minimal (I’d guess $100 or less). The cost of running for MP was said to be in the $1000 to $5000 range, so that the deposit of $1000 was significant relative to that. So even if the candidate got the deposit back at the end of the campaign, the upfront cost could prevent someone from effectively campaigning. Campaigns are apparently responsible for making out tax receipts for contributions, which have a tax credit associated with them, and the opinion suggests that a small fee along with the requirement of an auditor could ensure compliance with campaign finance laws. It also pointed out that non-compliance with campaign finance laws had much larger fines than the $1000 deposit.
More vague stuff from a court.