A piece by Tyler Dawson in the Globe and Mail carried a headline saying, “Elections Alberta’s financing rules will damage trust in the secession referendum process.”

The statement is only partially true. The issue isn’t the financing rules from Elections Alberta. It’s the selective application of the rules where the problem lies.

Further, the mess caused by the inconsistency of the interpretation of the rules by the electoral authority won’t just cause damage to trust in the secession referendum process; it will damage public trust in general elections as well.

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The rules governing advertising and disclosure in referenda in Alberta are quite clear. They impose a fundraising limit of $607,000 upon any third-party advertiser and put a cap on donations of $5,000 for any individual or corporation.

They also call for advertisers to file financial reports every week; they don’t allow any funding to come from outside of the province; and they make public the name of anybody who has donated more than $250. It’s very similar to the rules binding election candidates and parties.

The area of contention is in defining who is or isn’t a third-party advertiser. The definition appears simple. Any person or group spending more than $1,000 to promote a side in a referendum must register as an advertiser. Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian group has been spending tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars campaigning since the referendum campaign period began, yet Elections Alberta has not demanded that his group be bound by campaign rules.

They have accepted his absurd and smarmy claim that he isn’t taking a side in the referendum. It insults the intelligence that anybody can look at such an overt and large campaign and then be expected to believe them when they tell you it isn’t a campaign.

This ridiculousness from Elections Alberta is undermining the credibility of the organization, thus, by extension, undermining the credibility of elections themselves. Of all government bureaucracies, Elections Alberta must be held to the highest standards of impartiality.

Its actions and principles literally impact the democratic process, which elects our governments. Trust in the process and in the organization overseeing it is essential if citizens are to accept the outcomes of elections and referenda, and it is eroding quickly. If Elections Alberta can’t even recognize a blatant campaign in front of its eyes, what other ineptitudes lurk within its offices?

When elections lack credibility, the losing side has a valid claim in saying the results don’t hold water. When the integrity of electoral processes fails in nations, people seek alternative means of changing governments, and it's rarely pretty. Alberta certainly isn’t on the road to revolution, but if it allows the bureaucracy that manages elections to lose impartiality, it is beginning on the path to disorder.

There is more on the line this fall than just Alberta’s place in the federation in this referendum. The stability and credibility of the democratic process are now on the line. Elections Alberta must step up and fulfill its mandate. If they can send a multitude of police cars to a meeting over compromised electoral voters' lists, they surely can compel Lukaszuk’s group to follow the rules binding every other campaign group.