Former North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Jane Thornthwaite has been fined $50 by Elections BC for campaign flyers that ran afoul of the Elections Act.
During the run-up to last October's provincial election, Thornthwaite’s campaign produced 16,898 flyers that failed to include a statement naming the authorizing agent and providing their contact information, as required under the Act.
Her campaign team noticed the error and recovered all but 100 of the flyers, which had been delivered to North Vancouver-Seymour homes, according to a release from Elections BC.
“A penalty of $50 was assessed given that only 100 flyers were circulated and they were obviously from the Thornthwaite campaign,” the release stated. “Mitigating factors were considered when determining the penalty amount: the BC Liberal Party self-reported this contravention and went to extraordinary efforts to try to retrieve all materials and mitigate the situation, and; the BC Liberal Party was co-operative throughout Elections BC’s investigation.”
The Chief Electoral Officer has the authority to determine whether non-compliance has occurred and, if so, the amount of the penalty within ranges established by the Act.
The B.C. Green Party, meanwhile, is facing a $1,000 fine for failing to include an authorization statement in a newspaper ad run in Victoria's Times Colonist, which reached 250,000 homes.
North Island BC Liberal candidate Norm Facey is also facing a $250 penalty for running two newspaper ads without the required authorization statement.
