Wild West - money & BC politics
Matt Takach
Like it or not, political campaigns live and die on financial contributions. Without a considerable amount of money it is extremely difficult to successfully run for office. Within most jurisdictions in Canada, political parties rely almost solely on private contributions to mount their campaigns, with an ever increasing amount of money coming from corporations, trade unions, and a relatively small number of very wealthy individuals.
With contribution rules tightening up on the federal scene now is a good time for a quick comparison of political financing legislation throughout Canada. How does BC stack up to its provincial cousins and to the new rules in place in Ottawa since January?
The financial rules surrounding elections vary widely from province to province. They are now the most stringent at the federal level, followed by Manitoba and Quebec. British Columbia is at the other end of the spectrum. The rules here are some of the loosest in Canada, along with P.E.I. and Newfoundland, allowing contributions of any amount to be received by any political party from any person, corporation, union, or association in the entire world.
That’s right, you read correctly: anyone in the world may donate any amount they wish to a BC party. Citizens of France and the U.S. unite; have your say on BC politics! Also, under the current BC legislation, political parties may accept up to $10,000 of anonymous contributions per year, which allows some big donors to give without ever being identified.
The lack of restrictions on contributions to BC political parties makes the potential for buying political influence a real issue. And there are already concerns about some government decisions in favour of big donors to the Liberal party.
A recent example is the government’s bailout of Western Forest Products, which donated nearly $100,000 to the BC Liberals in the past 10 years (over $44,000 during the last election campaign). The government has allowed WFP to remove 28,000 hectares from its tree farm licenses on Vancouver Island, most of which is valuable land within an hour’s drive of Victoria.
It is hard to draw a line of direct cause-and-effect between the contributions to the governing party and the actions of the government. But red flags go up when some of the ruling party’s largest contributors receive massive subsidies that provide little to no benefit to the citizens of BC. We should, at least, start asking serious questions about certain policy decisions made by this government. And we should resolve to eliminate the potential for such red flags in the future.
Bringing British Columbia’s electoral legislation up to the level of many other provinces and Canada would be one very easy way of restoring public confidence in politicians and the political process in our province. A few simple steps for reform:
• Limit contributions to individuals (no more contributions from unions and corporations).
• Cap contributions at $1,000 per year.
• Require donors to be Canadian citizens and residents of BC.
NGOs and citizen groups have been calling for a review of and reforms to the BC legislation for a number of years, but the government has refused to change the laws it successfully used to get elected. However, calls for reform are starting to come from within the public service as well. The Chief Executive Officer of Elections BC’s wrote in March 2006 that British Columbia’s electoral legislation has fallen behind the Province’s counterparts in Canada. He goes on, “[in other provinces and at the federal level] public policy has continued to evolve. ... it may be appropriate to review all current election financing provisions in light of national trends and shifting public expectations and social attitudes.”
Since the modernization of electoral legislation is not on the BC government’s radar screen, Dogwood Initiative has decided to take constructive action. We are in the process of establishing a searchable database of all political contributions made to political parties in British Columbia. We plan to make this available to you within the next few months.
This database will give all people of British Columbia a place to easily research the funders of political parties, and help connect the dots between money in politics and the actions of our government.
