DOES THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS ACT (MEA) ENSURE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD?

That allegedly is one of its' goals. One candidate is not supposed to gain an advantage over another based solely upon a spending race. For example more signs at more locations gives the impression of greater popularity of a candidate. Brochures handed or even mailed out does the same thing. Advertising could give a huge advantage for the candidate who can afford repeat newspaper coverage. Locally one candidate for mayor had a dozen professionally made youtube videos on-line decribing her position on a dozen different issues. In fact I believe that despite the MEA one could find a statistical corelation between funds spent and votes received. Of course it would be a statistical corelation only not a guarantee.

Locally our municipal councillors in Elmira had a cap on their spending of approximately $11,000. The Wards outside Elmira had much smaller limits based upon population. The spending cap for the mayor's position was $22,000 and change. Look carefully at those caps. Frankly I believe that they are ridiculously high. The majority of candidates for Council spent $2,000-3,000 and for mayor the three losing candidates combined barely spent $3,000-4,000. The winning mayoralty candidate now has admitted expenses in the $11,000 area (excluding private audits) which is still only half of the cap for mayoral candidates.

Then of course there is the dramatic failure of the MEA when it comes to enforcement. Enforcement much less monitoring or even examination of candidates Financial Statements is non-existent. It is 100% left up to individual citizens to examine these statements, find problems, report them formally and in writing and then follow through with public hearings (MECAC), testimony and cross examination by biased MECAC members with gross conflicts of interest.

I've gone through the process to ascertain if it is honest or real. I haven't even mentioned the time and trouble involved in going to court which is still ongoing. The next court date is January 6, 2016 and it is still undetermined whether the Crown are going to proceed with the Election Act charges against mayor Shantz or not. I think you the readers can determine for yourselves whether or not the MEA was ever honestly intended to bring fairness to elections.