Don't like unions or corporations paying for your politicians? Would you rather pay for political campaigns instead directly through your tax dollars?
That's the question being asked now as Ontario's provincial Liberal government moves to ban corporate and union donations and the B.C. government is being asked to do the same by the NDP, which tabled a Campaign Finance Reform Act during the recent legislative sitting.
Closer to home, Coquitlam councillors are being asked if they, too, support a ban on corporate and union donations that currently fund municipal campaigns.
The idea is gaining traction because election campaigns — both provincially and municipally — are getting so expensive and people worry that union and corporate donations taint candidates.
In Coquitlam, for example, corporations spend five times more than unions on election campaigns, and although no one is suggesting unions and developers buy votes, there is concern they become a special interest.
Banning such donations would leave a holes in campaign coffers that may have to be filled by tax dollars. But if it would limit campaign spending generally, that might not be such a bad thing.
