Canadian flag flies in front of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 22, 2017.Chris Wattie/Reuters
Lately there’s been a surge in concern about money in politics. No, not the familiar scourge of Big Money: a handful of well-heeled donors buying influence with hefty political contributions. At the federal level, at least, contributions are strictly limited, while corporate and union donations have been banned since 2004. (The provinces are another story.)
The new wave of concern, rather, is over the influence of Small Money: the thousands and thousands of small individual donors on which the parties, thanks to campaign finance reform, now rely.
Why have our politics become so polarized, runs the argument? Because, obliged as they now are to raise funds from these legions of small donors – a never-ending quest, far removed from the genteel tour of the boardrooms that once sufficed – parties are driven to court the most extreme members of their base.
That’s not quite accurate. The parties are still funded publicly, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars annually: directly, through the partial reimbursement of campaign expenses (50 per cent, for the parties; 60 per cent, for candidates), and indirectly, through the 75 per cent (!) political-contribution tax credit.
All that was lost to them in 2015 was the additional layer of public funding known as the per-vote subsidy: originally set at $1.75 per vote received in the previous election, and indexed to inflation. But never mind. Is this a good idea?
Is it the case, first, that small donors are to blame for the polarization of our politics? I’d question whether “polarization” is even the right word, at least in Canada. Our problem is less a vast ideological gulf between the parties than it is the vein of extremism that runs – let’s be frank – through one of the parties in particular. The Liberals may have veered too far left under their current leader, but there is no equivalent to the wacko beliefs that have taken hold among a section of the Conservative base.
That the party leadership feels compelled to indulge these beliefs may indeed be partly attributable to the need to appeal to small donors. But it may also have other sources: for example, the crazy system by which party leaders are elected, with its emphasis on mass recruitment of “instant” members.
In any case, the more germane question, surely, is not why the party is so beholden, financially or otherwise, to its members – a not-undesirable state of affairs – but why so many members have taken leave of their senses.
To the extent that there is a problem, it’s far from clear that (more) public funding is the solution. It’s objectionable, for starters, to force people to pay to support causes to which they may vehemently object. Indeed, if it’s extremism you’re worried about, some of the biggest beneficiaries of the per-vote subsidy were parties whose agendas could objectively be described as extreme, notably the Bloc Québécois.
And there are other solutions. If the need to raise and spend so much money on election campaigns drives parties to extremes, let me suggest the answer is to spend less money on election campaigns. The argument that we should replace private donations with public funds presupposes that there is some fixed quantum of funds that must be raised, which by some miracle we are exactly at. Current levels of party spending, that is, are taken as a given.
Nonsense. It’s never been easier or cheaper for parties to “get their message out” (apparently there’s this thing called the internet). They don’t need to spend anything like as much as they do. The only reason any of them do is for fear of being outspent by the others.
Moreover, most of the money they spend goes to things that hurt democracy: attack ads, robocalls, and the like. You could cut party spending to a fraction of its current level, and I promise you no one would miss it – no one, aside from the hordes of consultants and party flaks who make their living off of it.
How to cut campaign spending? Cut the flow of funds that finances it. That means no public subsidy, but also tighter limits on private contributions – radically tighter. I’m thinking an annual limit of $500 per person – not for each donation, but as the total amount contributable to political causes of all kinds.
The way to make parties less desperate for money is not to relieve them of the trouble of raising it. It’s to make politics less dependent on money, period – big or small.
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.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
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