McLeod Group blog by John Cameron and Lauchlan T. Munro, January 16, 2025
With a federal election coming soon, how prepared are Canadian civil society organizations to speak out about the causes that they represent? Civil society has an important role in a democracy in holding leaders and political parties to account. In recent years, feminist, Indigenous and environmentalist movements have actively fulfilled that role in Canada. But what about civil society organizations (CSOs) working in international development?
CSOs in the international development sector need to decide quickly whether and how they will engage in the election. The reason is simple: Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, way ahead in the polls, has pledged to cut what he called “wasteful foreign aid that goes to dictators, terrorists and multinational bureaucracies.” Will Canadian CSOs try to mobilize public support for Canada’s international cooperation programs or accept Poilievre’s pledge as a done deal?
The last time Canada’s Conservatives made a similar promise was in 2019, when then Conservative leader Andrew Scheer pledged to cut international assistance by 25%. Civil society was, with few exceptions, caught flat-footed. Very few Canadian CSOs were ready or willing to make the public case for international development assistance.
Data from Elections Canada shows that CSOs across the country largely go silent on policy issues during elections – including CSOs in the international development sector. It’s crucial to understand why Canadian CSOs are so reluctant to engage with policy issues during elections – and the dangers of that silence.
Some blame the Elections Act, which requires all third parties (individuals and organizations that are not candidates or political parties) that spend more than $500 on “election advertising” to register with Elections Canada, show authorization from their governing board to spend money on election advertising, appoint a financial agent, open a dedicated bank account and report on that spending.
In the last three federal elections (2015, 2019 and 2021), only five Cooperation Canada members ever registered as third parties with Elections Canada: Amnesty International (Anglophone Section), CARE Canada, OXFAM Canada, UNICEF Canada, and World Vision, with Cooperation Canada itself and many other prominent CSOs notably absent.
Some organizations claim that the Elections Canada rules are too complicated and vague. One official of a normally activist CSO told us that the law “is not extremely clear… where is the line between what is advertising and what isn’t?”. They stated, “We have very few resources and rarely any legal resources [if we are accused of breaking the law].”
Faced with legal requirements perceived as onerous and confusing, many CSOs choose to go silent. Others claim that they can still engage effectively in policy debates during elections without spending any money, so they don’t need to register with Elections Canada. However, our interviews with international development CSOs indicate that many of them still choose silence.
As the policy director of a large CSO emphasized to us in a confidential interview: “we steer clear of policy issues during elections.”
The Elections Act and its regulations are not especially onerous or confusing for CSOs that invest the time to understand them. CSOs of all sizes across many sectors have registered and reported on their spending – and some Cooperation Canada members have experience to share. The regulations should not be an excuse for self-censorship.
Many CSOs also want to appear non-partisan. Their boards and management don’t want to risk alienating private donors or antagonizing politicians who might be in power after the election, and so silence is often the strategic choice. As the policy director of another CSO explained to us: “Elections are hyper partisan and we’re very concerned about not being perceived as partisan. We just want to keep our noses clean.”
Another reason for CSOs’ self-censorship during election campaigns is that elections are a noisy, crowded space where the focus is on the political parties and leaders. It can be very hard to attract attention, no matter how much a CSO might spend. Another CSO policy director explained, “we’ve definitely made the decision to not spend too many resources on election advertising because you can’t break through the noise.”
The decision to stay silent during elections may seem like the easiest and safest option for many individual CSOs. But it also carries the risk of not being ready to speak out when the core interests of the sector are threatened. As the director of a large CSO reflected on the sector’s non-response to the Conservative’s pledge to cut foreign aid in 2019, “we were not prepared to defend the core principles of development assistance.” In 2019, much of the defence of Canada’s aid program fell to academics, while CSOs generally stayed mute.
When the writs drop for the next federal election, possibly as soon as late March, there could be as few as 37 days before the election itself. CSOs need to decide now whether and how they will engage with Canadians on key policy issues related to international development. They also need to get ready to register with Elections Canada.
During election campaigns, political parties tend to hog the headlines, but that does not mean that CSOs should remain silent. Indeed, this is the time for civil society to speak up.
John Cameron is a Professor of International Development Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Lauchlan Munro teaches at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies. This blog is based on research funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Image: Carolyn Langton.