As anticipated earlier this year, Elections Canada has reached out to IAB Canada regarding their upcoming consultations on the elections process as it pertains to digital advertising in Canada. We have been asked to submit responses to three papers published by Elections Canada to generate discussion and feedback from various experts and stakeholders and raise awareness about emerging issues facing our electoral democracy. The responses garnered from this consultative process will assist the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada in making informed recommendations to Parliament.
IAB Canada, and its members, have worked closely with Elections Canada in the past to aid in enhancing electoral integrity. As a result of our partnership with Elections in 2019, we were able to rally our industry to not only meet transparency requirements in the form of registries, but also developed a technical solution to aid in the vetting and displaying of issue ads. The electoral process impacts all of us as citizens and we will do whatever we can to aid the government in preserving a fairness and openness. As such, we will be preparing responses to all three consultation papers and encourage you to join us in the process.
The first paper, The Regulation of Political Communications under the Canada Elections Act, aims to foster discussion about whether existing provisions in the Act meet the challenges that have arisen in recent years, largely due to new communications technology.
The second paper, The Impact of Social Media Platforms in Elections, looks more closely at social media and digital advertising platforms and aims to promote discussion on the impacts that these platforms may have on elections and democracy.
The third paper, The Protection of Electors’ Personal Information in the Federal Electoral Context, aims to encourage discussion on how fair information principles could be applied to political parties, taking into account their unique role in Canada’s democracy.
We will be forming policy working groups focused on each individual consultation and invite you to join us. If you are interested please reach out to policy@iabcanada.com and indicate which paper(s) you would like to focus on.
The submissions are due on August 21st, 2020.