Restriction on advertising
189. (1) No registered candidate and no individual, corporation or trade union acting with the candidate’s knowledge and consent shall, except during the period of twenty-eight days immediately preceding the day before polling day, (a) advertise on the facilities of any broadcasting undertaking; or (b) procure for publication, cause to be published or consent to the publication of an advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication or through the use of outdoor advertising facilities, for the purposes of promoting or opposing the election of a registered candidate. Idem (2) No individual or corporation shall, during the period referred to in subsection (1), broadcast on the facilities of any broadcasting undertaking or publish in a newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication or through the use of outdoor advertising facilities an advertisement promoting or opposing the election of a registered candidate on behalf of any registered candidate or any individual, corporation or trade union acting with the candidate’s knowledge or consent. Exemptions (3) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to, (a) advertising public meetings in the municipality or the jurisdiction of the school board or local board, as the case may be; (b) announcing the location of the campaign headquarters of a candidate; (c) advertising for volunteer campaign workers; (d) announcing services for electors by candidates respecting the revision of the preliminary list and additions to the polling list; (e) announcing services for electors on polling day; or (f) any other matter respecting administrative functions of a candidate’s campaign headquarters, if the advertisements, announcements and other matters are done in accordance with the guidelines of the Commission. Idem (4) Nothing contained in subsection (1) prohibits news reporting done in good faith during the period referred to in subsection (1) or the procuring for publication or the publishing of, (a) an advertisement referred to in subsection (1) on the day immediately preceding polling day in a newspaper which is published in the municipality or in the jurisdiction of the school board or local board, as the case may be, not more frequently than once a week if the day of regular publication falls on the day immediately preceding polling day; or (b) an advertisement referred to in subsection (1) on the day immediately preceding polling day and on polling day through the use of any outdoor advertising facility. Idem, broadcasting (5) Nothing in subsection (1) prohibits the broadcasting on the facilities of a broadcasting undertaking of news reporting done in good faith in accordance with the Broadcasting Act (Canada) and the regulations made and guidelines published thereunder during the period referred to in subsection (1). Limitations on charges for broadcasting, publishing (6) No individual or corporation shall, (a) charge a registered candidate, or any person acting with the candidate’s knowledge and consent, a rate for broadcasting time on any broadcasting undertaking in the period beginning on the twenty-eighth day before the day immediately before polling day at an election and ending on the second day before polling day, that exceeds the lowest rate charged by the individual or corporation for an equal amount of equivalent time on the same facilities made available to any other person in that period; or (b) charge a registered candidate, or any person acting with the candidate’s knowledge and consent, a rate for an advertisement in a periodical publication published or distributed and made public in the period referred to in clause (a) that exceeds the lowest rate charged by the individual or corporation for an equivalent amount of advertising space in the same issue of the periodical or in any issue published or distributed and made public in that period. R.S.O. 1990, c.M.53, s.189. Campaign Expenses