December 4, 2002

Political Finance Reform

In two recent speeches NDP Leader Joy MacPhail has called for substantial reforms in the way politics is financed in BC. MacPhail called for a made in BC approach to campaign finance reform. She said BC should look at the approaches taken in Manitoba and Quebec as well as recent proposed amendments to the Canada Election Act.

In Manitoba the NDP made it illegal for unions and corporations to contribute to political parties and election campaigns. Section 41 of Manitoba's Elections Finances Act also makes it illegal for any individual to contribute more than $3,000 per year to any party or election campaign. Effective reform has to apply to political parties in non-election years as well as to campaigns during an election since political financing happens continuously, not just during the 28 days of a formal campaign.

Some of the potential impacts from restricting political donations can be seen by looking at where political parties have been getting their money. The BC Elections Act was amended by the former government to require political parties to file financial reports on an annual basis as well as a special filing after every election. In addition to lists of any individuals who contribute more than $250, the report includes total contributions by type of source - individuals, corporations, unions. Those filings are available for inspection on the Internet by clicking on http://elections.bc.ca/fin/finmain.html and following the instructions.

For the May 2001 election, the BC Liberal Party received contributions of $6,186,987 of which $4,306,528 came from corporations; $1,670,944 from individuals and only $1,050 from unions. A favorite political sport since the election is to match the list of specific contributions to the list of corporations who are doing business with or asking favors from the Campbell government. Less than 9% of their campaign donations, $536,987, were from individuals who donated less than $250 each (and hence not individually identified).

It might appear that tracking the New Democrats' donations takes a little more work because each of the 79 constituency associations report donations as well as the central party; however, most of the constituency reports are "nil reports" since the NDP collects donations centrally during election campaigns. The Liberals don't register their constituency associations with Elections BC since they always run everything through their central office.

For the last election, the BC NDP's provincial office received contributions of $2,375,108 of which $122,131 came from corporations; $1,526,197 from individuals and $684,105 from unions. Of the donations made through the NDP's provincial office, 38% ($899,993) came from individuals who donated less than $250.

Even though the total contributions received by the BC Liberals were almost three times as much as the NDP, the NDP received almost twice as much in small donations from individuals and almost the same amount in total individual donations.

Election finance reform would remove the power of the corporate and union purse from BC politics. During the course of an election campaign that would probably mean less money for television ads (a good thing). After an election there would be less concern about corporate or union influence over a government (an even better thing). Election finance reform would also level the field between political parties if individuals were the only source of political donations and no individual could contribute more than some reasonable amount. In Manitoba, an NDP government brought in those reforms. In BC, the NDP government reformed financial reporting for political parties but failed to reform political financing. The Campbell government has the opportunity to make the appropriate changes, but it is more likely that the NDP will carry the issue into the next election as a task still needing to be completed.