Federal election campaign spending cap increase a boon to candidates

Morning North7:22Election year - understatement for Sudbury

A provincial election, a municipal election, then two byelections and finally a federal election this fall. You couldn't blame Sudbury for having voter fatigue. We reached David Tabachnick, political science professor at Nipissing U. to sort it all out.Byelection candidates in the Sudbury riding are getting a big increase in the amount of money they can spend campaigning.

Thanks to a new federal law that came into effect last year, campaign spending caps now increase, depending on the length of the campaign.

Normal election campaigns slightly more than a month — but the byelection in Sudbury will be more than five months long.

In the last election, a candidate in the riding could only spend $84,000. Now they can spend five times that much — more than $400,000.

The changes will benefit those on the campaign trail, said David Tabachnick, a political science professor at Nipissing University.

"It really just depends on that amount of time. And that I think makes sense in part because if the campaign is going on longer, there are of course there is more demand upon the candidates to keep their message out there," he said.

"It gives the candidates a great opportunity to get their message out, to introduce themselves to the electorate."

Tabachnick noted the extra money means parties in the riding also get a profile boost. But there can be down side.

"On the other hand, it may be that people start to tune out," he saud.

"It gets a little repetitive and it may dissuade people from being informed voters.

The date for the Sudbury byelection is the same as the proposed fixed date election for the rest of the country — Oct. 19.