Monday, December 19, 2005

Belinda Wants Gag Law Eased

Belinda Stronach, the Liberal Minister for Democratic Renewal, admitted recently that the election gag law is too strict.

In a column appearing in the Newmarket Era Banner, Stronach is quoted as saying “easing some of the limits on third-party advertising may be worth considering”.

This is kind of a big deal since she is the first senior Liberal to even suggest the gag law is too restrictive.

Mind you she is no where near as opposed to gag laws as she was last year. That’s when she signed an NCC pledge which committed her to scrapping the gag law should she become Prime Minister.

But at least it’s a start.

Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper has also pledged to scrap the gag law.

Could this be the beginning of a bipartisan move to restore free speech to Canadians?

1 comment:

Monkey Loves to Fight said...

I actually agree with Belinda. I am okay with restrictions on running parallel campaigns that directly support a party or candidate as this has been used as a way to circumvent candidate spending limits. However, I think the part restricting spending on issues associated with a particular party needs to be scrapped as elections should be debates about ideas including ones politicians don't want to debate.