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Bans or limits on civic-election campaign donations not such a big issue: minister

March 26th, 2010 · 4 Comments

The province’s task force on civic electoral reform is slowly generating more interest these days, with the realization that maybe something really is going to change.

I did my brief summary on the issues in the Globe here, but there’s a lot more material around and information to be had. The big items are 1. whether to ban corporate and union donations or put limits on all donations 2. how to make election contributions and spending more transparent and accessible to the public (i.e. online and available BEFORE the election, not three months after) 3. who to get to investigate complaints after elections, since it’s a cumbersome procedure that currently involves having city staff investigate their own bosses (something they say frankly makes them uncomfortable) or calling in the police, which is heavy-handed, cumbersome and usually useless 4. whether there should be a corporate vote (Minister Bill Bennett already says he’s heard a huge negative reaction on that one) 5. whether the restrictions on who can run should be changed, something smaller towns are pushing for (volunteer firefighters currently aren’t allowed to run for office) and 6. whether elections should be every four years instead of every three.

The minister in charge of the task force with the Union of B.C. Municipalities, Bill Bennett, has been very open about what his opinions are on various things or what he’s been hearing. That’s ruffled the feathers of people who worry he’s decided what he’s going to do in advance or that he’s only giving his version of what he thinks people want.

Bennett told me yesterday he has now decided to make all submissions to the task force available online (something that wasn’t being done before), although without names because of privacy consideration, and they should be up next week. As for him having undue influence on the process, the task force is being co-chaired by the UBCM, which said loud and clear a couple of weeks ago that they thought bringing back the corporate tax was a hugely bad idea. Bennett said he’s heard that message.

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  • Neil Monckton

    Despite what Minister Bennett is saying, BCers want spending reined in for civic elections — big time. Nearly 3,000 citizens we surveyed so far want an end to big money influence.

    Good to hear the minister will be making all submissions public so we can find out who is telling him the wild west spending should continue.

    Click http://www.thinkcity.ca/electoral_reform_survey to read the preliminary results that were presented to Vancouver city council yesterday.

    BTW, Mayor Robertson and Vancouver city council passed a motion asking for election spending and contribution limits, along with a ban on union and corporate donations. Again.

  • Brenton

    It does seem odd that Minister Bennett (of whom I am admittedly not a big fan) is publicly giving his own opinions while the consultations are still taking place.

  • Bill Lee

    Bring back one-year council terms. Then they are more responsive to the electors.

    [ And we will whisper “wards” for the larger cities. ]

  • John Whistler

    I think that that Minister Bennett’s comments on March 20 “If it costs $100,000 or $1 million to run a campaign and people like your ideas and want to give it to you that’s fine, that’s the marketplace of politics.” (Thinkcity) were most telling and prejudges the Task Force.

    I believe banning corporate, union and non-profit donations and reasonable donation limits (like at the federal level) would do more than anything to democratize civic elections.

    Allowing donations from corporations and unions without limits clearly corrupts politicians. Vancouver’s politics is an example of how politicians are corrupted by the real estate industry.