Harper v. Canada (Attorney General)
| Harper v Canada (AG) | |
|---|---|
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| Hearing: 10 February 2004 Judgment: 18 May 2004 |
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| Full case name | Attorney General of Canada v Stephen Joseph Harper |
| Citations | [2004] 1 S.C.R. 827; 2004 SCC 33 (CanLII); (2004), 239 D.L.R. (4th) 193; [2004] 8 W.W.R. 1; (2004), 119 C.R.R. (2d) 84; (2004), 27 Alta. L.R. (4th) 1 |
| Docket No. | 29618 |
| Prior history | Judgment for the respondent in the Court of Appeal for Alberta. |
| Ruling | Spending limits in the Canada Elections Act are constitutional. |
| Court Membership | |
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Chief Justice: Beverley McLachlin Puisne Justices: Frank Iacobucci, John C. Major, Michel Bastarache, Ian Binnie, Louise Arbour, Louis LeBel, Marie Deschamps, Morris Fish |
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| Reasons given | |
| Majority | Bastarache J., joined by Iacobucci, Arbour, LeBel, Deschamps, and Fish JJ. |
| Concur/dissent | McLachlin C.J. and Major J., joined by Binnie J. (in parts) |
Harper v Canada (AG), [2004] 1 S.C.R. 827, 2004 SCC 33, is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada wherein the Court ruled that Canada Elections Act's spending limits on third party election advertising does not violate section 2(b) and 2(d) and section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The 1974 Election Expenses Act prohibited third party interest groups, defined as any individual or group other than a candidate or a registered political party, from spending money in promoting or opposing candidates and parties. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled in Libman v. Attorney General of Quebec that restricting third party spending has a valid object "to permit an informed choice to be made by ensuring that some positions are not buried by others".
The Liberal Party of Canada's government introduced Bill C-2 which became the new Canada Elections Act in 2002. Bill C-2 limited third party election advertising maximum spending to $150,000 nationwide, of which a maximum of $3,000 can be spent on a given electoral district.
Stephen Harper, then president of the National Citizens Coalition (he became Prime Minister in 2006), launched a constitutional challenge in June 2000 to Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in Edmonton. The court held that sections 350 and 351 of the Canada Elections Act were unconstitutional. The Alberta Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, ruled on December 16, 2002 that all provisions on third party activities, except for section 358, violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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