Contrarian reader Rodger Rowden disagrees: Unless political parties are exempt from PIPEDA [the federal  Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act], there may very well be legal problems with releasing donor information. PIPEDA is a companion to the federal Privacy Act. The latter applies only to governments and government agencies. The former applies only to "organizations that collect, use, and or disclose personal information in the course of commercial activities [contrarian emphasis]." Political parties fall into neither category. If apologists for Liberal Party and NDP pre-election secrecy are right, we should soon see prosecution of the Tories and the Greens for coming...

07 June, 2009
The NDP have joined the Liberals in insisting that voters go to the poll without knowing who donated to their campaign. The party revealed the names of labour unions and corporations that gave to the campaign, but withheld the names of individuals who contributed a total of $287,013.12. "The initial advice we received from [Chief Electoral Officer]  Christine [McCulloch] is that there were privacy concerns," said N-dip campaign director Matt Hebb. "If she has different advice now, I will take a look at it.' McCulloch's press aide Dana Philip Doiron told contrarian last week that, in response to requests for an opinion, McCulloch merely told the parties they should seek their own legal counsel, because it was not appropriate for her to issue legal advice.
07 June, 2009