Do political parties need stronger rules for local nomination elections?

Recent reports have warned that local candidate nomination meetings could be vulnerable to foreign interference. But experts say there might not be an easy way to tighten the rules that govern those races.

Last month, Global News published a story reporting allegations that the Chinese government interfered in the 2019 Liberal nomination process in the riding of Don Valley North. The story cited sources who claim Beijing bused international students with fake addresses to the nomination meeting to vote for a specific candidate.

The Liberals and MP Han Dong, the candidate in question, have denied those allegations.

During a House committee meeting on Thursday, David Morrison, deputy minister at Foreign Affairs, cautioned MPs about some of the "intelligence" that has been leaked and reported in the media.

He said intelligence gathered by CSIS or other national security agencies "rarely paints a full or concrete or actionable picture. Intelligence almost always comes heavily caveated and qualified.

"It is extremely rare to come across an intel report that is concrete enough to constitute a smoking gun."

Still, a report released Tuesday outlining the work of a panel of five senior public servants tasked with monitoring election interference during the 2021 federal campaign — a panel that included Morrison — flagged local party nominations as a source of concern.

"There were also concerns raised by some that some foreign states have supported potential candidates for Parliament who will promote the interests of the foreign state. They may receive assistance from agents of the foreign state to sign up party members to help the preferred candidate win a party's nomination," the report said.

Tuesday's report said that attempts to interfere in the election didn't affect the integrity of the overall vote and there was no evidence that Elections Canada itself was targeted.

Andrew House, co-leader of the national security group at Fasken Law, said that candidate nomination contests tend to face less scrutiny than general elections.

"It's not that the rules aren't strict. It's that there are so many of these nomination contests occurring, they often happen so quickly [and] they are volunteer-run, by and large," House said. "Those factors lead to conditions where people either don't know the rules or the rules can be broken without sufficient scrutiny."

McMaster University political science professor Peter Graefe pointed out that it's fairly simple for someone to join a party prior to a nomination election — it can be done just weeks or even days before the nomination meeting.

"Our parties are very open organizations and so you don't have to go through any kind of complex recruitment process," Graefe said.

Parties generally require that those looking to join pay a registration fee and sign an attestation stating they don't belong to any other party. Unlike general elections, party nomination contests do not require that voters be at least 18 and a citizen in order to vote — but voters must prove that they live in the riding.