Marc Benioff, the billionaire who has emerged as a spokesperson for a more liberal and civically active Silicon Valley, is stepping away from partisan politics.
Recode has learned the founder of Salesforce is no longer making political contributions to candidates, fundraising for candidates, or endorsing candidates. It’s a stark departure from Benioff’s storied past as a political animal who has given millions to campaigns and picked bruising fights with other tech leaders over tax evasion and corporate power. The reason? Benioff is likely striving for impartiality after buying Time magazine in late 2018.
“I will not [be taking] public positions on candidates,” he told Recode in a text message. “I no longer make political positions or funding since buying Time Magazine.”
Benioff shared that policy when asked which presidential candidate he would be voting for on Tuesday in California’s Democratic primary. Benioff said he had “stopped everything” revolving around candidates — something that he says he’s been explaining recently to the many political aspirants who have been coming to him seeking support.
Originally a self-described Republican who gave his very first check to Steve Forbes during Forbes’s quixotic run for the GOP nomination in 1996, Benioff went on to take an appointment in the George W. Bush administration. Over the years, he has turned more liberal in his political giving — in 2016 he hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton — but he continued to make donations to some Republicans, such as Kevin McCarthy just last May.
“I was at one time a Republican, but now I’m an independent,” Benioff wrote in his new book, Trailblazer, published last year. “I’ve given advice to both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. I personally held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but I had no problem coming to the Donald Trump White House in my capacity as a business leader to talk about workforce development and technology training programs. Salesforce is not a political organization and our values don’t come with party affiliations.”
Over the last 25 years, Benioff has given $1.7 million to politicians and groups, including a $500,000 contribution to a gun-control group in 2013. But Benioff made no disclosed political contributions dating back to June of last year except for donations to Salesforce’s PAC, his longest stretch of political inactivity since mid-2014, according to a review of federal records.
But Benioff is taking a step away from partisan politics at a moment when other tech leaders are rushing toward it. Silicon Valley has been awakened by a new spirit of activism to protest the Trump administration, and some tech billionaires have sought to channel their money and energy toward new political projects to remove Trump from office in 2020. Benioff, if anything, has taken the opposite tack: He has fostered an at-times warm relationship with the Trump administration — convincing the president to sign off, for instance, on a new tree-planting initiative — and resisting calls from Salesforce employees to cancel the company’s contract with Customs and Border Protection since the agency helps implement the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
There is one exception, however, to Benioff’s new vow of political neutrality: The garrulous Salesforce founder said he would continue to weigh in on ballot measures related to homelessness, an issue close to Benioff’s heart. (Other ballot initiatives, Benioff said, he would personally stay out of.)
In 2018, Benioff argued publicly with another tech titan, Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, over a tax proposition that would fund new anti-homelessness spending in San Francisco, where Salesforce and Twitter are both headquartered. The measure, Proposition C, eventually passed, to Benioff’s delight.
And he himself has long been dogged by speculation that he would want to run for San Francisco mayor someday. With the Time deal, that seems as unlikely as ever.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
