Survey of Official Agents following the 43^rd General Election - III. Conclusions

Printable PDF version

The high turnover of Official Agents (with almost seven in ten reporting as first time OAs in this survey) indicates this role's challenges and frustrations are outweighing its rewards, and the comments received from respondents to the survey confirm this. It is potentially problematic, especially for aspiring new politicians with small campaign budgets, if the OA role requires extensive accounting experience and/or a large amount of time and effort to complete properly. The work EC has done to provide training and supportive materials has been appreciated, and EC staff receives generally high marks for courtesy and helpfulness, but more needs to be done to ensure the level of effort required of this role is not overly onerous and that repetitive tasks are minimized or eliminated.

The following are suggestions for EC's consideration, stemming from survey responses and comments:

• Make changes to OA training so the bulk of it is available to OAs coming on board at any time during the campaign;
• Include more examples of expenses and reporting situations in training materials;
• Make improvements to EFR and make it entirely online or available across multiple computer platforms;
• Have a simplified/fast track process for small campaigns/first time candidates/under $10,000 or zero budget campaigns; amend the Canada Elections Act to make opening a campaign bank account optional for zero budget campaigning; and
• Review the requirements and identify and reduce/eliminate duplication where possible.

• Previous
• Table of Contents
• Next