Why the David Suzuki Foundation won't tell you who to vote for

Credit: Cristian V. via Flickr

At the David Suzuki Foundation, we strive to be an important voice on environmental issues and policies in Canada, and we know our community depends on us for information about ways to make a difference. We know, too, that federal elections are an important part of deciding the future of our country. And so, during this election, we are sharing our insights on significant issues through an environmental lens.

We've received many questions about parties and candidates. People in our community are asking, "Who should I vote for?" We thought we should tell you why we're not answering that question.

As a registered charity, we operate under Canada Revenue Agency guidelines that prohibit us from making partisan comments or showing preference for individual candidates or for one party's platform over another.



We can encourage you to vote (and we do), and we can share interesting and useful information about the party platforms and our own concerns (and we do). But we can't give you suggestions on which candidate or party you should vote for or provide any partisan commentary.

What can we do during the election?

We can discuss the Foundation's policy positions on issues we work on and believe are critical in this election, such as ocean conservation, energy and climate, endangered plants and animals and science and democracy.
We can factually report on where all parties stand on policies such as carbon pricing, climate change, oil tankers and transportation.

What can't we do during the election?

We can't align ourselves with particular parties, candidates or individual positions.
We can't weigh in on the format of leaders' debates.
We can't promote party platforms that align with our vision.

Given those constraints, this is what we are working on:

Election Pledge: A letter telling the party leaders that you are voting for a candidate who will protect the people and places you love.
Encouraging you to ask your candidates about their positions on important issues.
Providing a tool to help you write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
Keeping you informed in a non-partisan way with our Election 2015 blogs.

The results of the election will not only affect our work but will shape the lives of Canadians for generations to come. It's hard to imagine a more important reason to be involved.

Now... have you registered to vote?

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