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The Conservatives have been particularly focused on the activities of Leadnow, which organized strategic voting campaigns in favour of whichever candidate had the best chance of beating a Conservative in a riding.

Canada’s elections commissioner, Yves Côté, has said he received numerous complaints involving registered third parties in the past election, “many more complaints than had been filed with respect to the previous election in 2011,” he told a Senate committee in April.

Under current rules, there are two general loopholes available to third parties: they only need to report contributions made in the six months leading up to an election writ, and during an election they only have spending limits on advertising. The costs of hiring staff, conducting polls, holding rallies, running a website and any other activities that don’t directly fit the category of “advertising” are not regulated by Elections Canada, as they are for political parties.

For example, a registered third party could accept any amount of foreign money prior to the six-month pre-election period and then use it for non-advertising purposes during an election, and wouldn’t be breaking any rules. (Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand told a Senate committee last November he’s seen no evidence that this has occurred, however, and noted that no third party came close to the spending limit in the past election.)

Frum’s bill, which is unlikely to pass but could get incorporated into future government legislation, would amend the Canada Elections Act to explicitly forbid a registered third party from accepting “a contribution for any purposes related to an election if the contribution is from any foreign source.”

Both Côté and Mayrand have already suggested there should be a tightening of the rules governing third-party spending and reporting.

“I would suggest that third-party engagement in Canada’s electoral process will likely continue to grow,” Côté told the committee in April. “For that reason, it may be time for Parliament to re-examine the third-party regime that was put in place 17 years ago with a view to ensuring a level playing field is maintained for all participants.”

• Email: bplatt@postmedia.com | Twitter: btaplatt