The Christian Heritage Party, undaunted by the Supreme Court of Canada's refusal of leave to appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal decision upholding Canada's election funding laws, has now asked Canada's Governor-General, Michaelle Jean, to intervene to instruct the Supreme Court to hear their appeal.
The C.H.P. and several other small political parties unsuccessfully challenged federal election funding rules that require specific vote thresholds to be achieved before a political party is eligible to obtain public funding.
The Supreme Court of Canada's decision, declining to hear the appeal, was released April 24, 2008.
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
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1 comment:
Help me out Gary; but if memory serves the "five and two" rules were put in place after the 1993 election when the Natural Law Party (a front for the transcendental meditation sect) exploited the rules and got a couple million in matching funds -- even though they had about 0.63% of the popular vote.
The consensus was that a "fringe" party had to demonstrate they had broad public support and were not just a religious group attempting to leech off of public funds. The CHP only had 0.19% of the popular vote -- not even 2/10th of one percent.
On the other hand, the Green Party more than met the threshold -- they smashed it by getting about 4.5%.
The whole point behind having a GG is to have someone who stands above politics and the judicary. The CHP doesn't have a leg to stand on.
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