Skip to content

‘City’ mail-out with candidate messages not illegal: Elections BC

The City of North Vancouver’s chief election officer has flagged concerns about some candidates’ mail-out advertising. But Elections BC says no election laws have been seriously broken.
cnv

The City of North Vancouver’s chief election officer has flagged concerns about some candidates’ mail-out advertising. But Elections BC says no election laws have been seriously broken.

In a release posted to the city’s website late Wednesday, chief election officer Karla Graham said the city had become aware of a mailout “that appeared to come from the City of North Vancouver,” but inside, was campaign literature from a group of candidates pooling their advertising efforts.

“This is to advise that the city did not create, authorize or distribute the envelope containing the election information. The city does not and would not endorse or support any particular candidate seeking elected office,” a statement from the city read.

The case was referred to Elections BC, but the provincial agency says there is no investigation happening.

“The Local Elections Campaign Financing Act doesn’t regulate the content or branding of election ads or signs or mailers, apart from requiring that authorization statement that says the brochure piece of election advertising is authorized and providing contact information,” said Andrew Watson, Elections BC spokesman.

One of the candidates included in the mailer, Shervin Shahriari, did however fail to include that authorization statement, Watson said, but Elections BC isn’t considering any penalties.

“The first step is always education, so we reached out to the candidate involved and let them know about the rules,” he said, “…as opposed to going to investigations and enforcement immediately.”

In response, Shahriari said it was due to a design error.

“They have called me and I have updated all my new brochures with the authorization statement,” he said.