Influence of Electoral Law
The party was formed as a result of laws restricting political advocacy by “third parties” (i.e., organizations not registered by Elections Canada as political parties) during election campaigns. The party took advantage of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that allowed political parties to be registered by only running a single candidate. AAEV was thus allowed it to promote its views during election periods.
The party's role in most ridings is to endorse a major-party candidate who promotes positions favourable to its own. In the 2006 general election, AAEV's free-time political ads endorsed the New Democratic Party, counterbalanced by the statement that voters could also vote for AAEV leader Liz White in Toronto Centre.
Canadian electoral laws hinder misuse of this loophole by setting campaign spending limits for parties, proportional to the number of voters in the electoral districts where the party is running candidates. Because the AAEV was running only one candidate, it was permitted to spend $66,715.37, compared to the $18,225,260.74 limits granted to the major national parties. In 2008 the party ran four candidates.
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“Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern—can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.”
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