OTTAWA—The Liberals may not have reformed Canada’s electoral system as they promised in 2015, but there are some changes to how Canadians will elect their next parliament .

The Liberal government introduced changes to election laws in Bill C-76 that cover everything from voter identification rules, spending by third-party advocacy groups, and transparency in political advertising. The changes — sold in part as protection against foreign meddling interference in Canadian elections — came into effect this year.

One of the biggest changes — the creation of a “pre-election” period — is already in effect.

What is the pre-election period?

In elections past, spending by political parties and third-party advocacy groups like unions were largely unregulated outside the actual writ period – that is, the period between when the prime minister requests the governor general dissolve parliament and election day.

The Liberals’ changed that with the creation of the “pre-election” period from June 30 to the first day of the federal election. The pre-election period puts limits on how much money parties and third-party groups can spend on political activities like advertising, opinion polling, or organizing for a political party.

During this period, third-party groups are required to report their political activities, and political parties and third-parties have to identify themselves in partisan advertising.

While there’s little direct impact on voters from the change, it does influence the amount of political advertising Canadians are subjected to in the lead up to the campaign proper.

New spending limits for both the pre-election and election periods

The Liberals capped political parties’ advertising spending at $2.05 million for the pre-election period, and limited third party groups overall spending to $1.02 million. Third parties can spend no more than $10,234 of that limit in a given electoral district.

During the actual election campaign, party spending is capped at roughly $28 million assuming a 36-day campaign. In the marathon 2015 campaign, both the Liberals and the Conservatives spent roughly $40 million.

The caps were seen by some Conservatives as a way to limit one of their advantages; they out-fundraise the Liberals, and have a much larger war chest to draw from. The spending caps have likely had an effect on how parties game out the months leading up to the vote.

Tim Powers, a conservative strategist and vice chairman of Summa Strategies, said the new pre-election period requires parties to write “chapters” for their campaigns.

“You saw the Conservatives before the rules came in (make) some initial definition of Scheer to the public. Starting again, they use the pre-election rules to buy some big traditional advertising space. I think it’s finding that balance,” Powers said in an interview.

“You saw the prime minister, as any prime minister would, use the tools of government to tell his story … So if you’re in opposition and you have a lot of money, you can write early chapters of your story. If you’re in government, you do what governments have done for years — you use the power of government to tell your story, and then you maximize your spending when you can during the actual election period.”

Advertising registries — or not

The Liberals have also required social media platforms that run political ads to create a registry of those ads — basically a database indicating who purchased the advertising space and a copy of the ad.

Social media giant Facebook went further and included how much parties and groups were spending on political ads as well as high-level information about who the ads targeted. Twitter opted to refuse political advertising during the pre-writ period while it builds its database. Google has flat out refused to create a database, and will not host political ads at all.

More advance polls, longer voting hours

But the changes that should be most visible to voters concern advance polling. Elections Canada expects “high demand” for voting at advance polls, so the agency plans to increase the number of advance voting sites and to keep those polls open for 12 hours.

The agency is also increasing the number of post-secondary campuses where Canadians can vote by special ballot — an option for voters who either cannot or do not want to vote in an advance poll or on election day. In 2015, Elections Canada offered special ballot voting at 39 post-secondary campuses. In 2019, the agency expects to offer the service at more than 115 campuses.

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The Liberals also rolled back Conservative restrictions on how voters can identify themselves. The voter information cards sent out by Elections Canada can once again be used as confirmation of a voters’ address when paired with other forms of identification. Elections Canada publishes a full list of acceptable identification on its website.

For voters who for whatever reason don’t have the required identification, the Liberals reinstated a system of “vouching,” where one voter in the same polling district can vouch for another.

Correction - September 6, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version to reflect that parties' spending limits no longer increase during longer general election campaigns. Under recent changes to the Canada Elections Act, spending limits are no longer pro-rated to the length of the campaign.

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