Richard McGuire
Last week Boundary-Similkameen NDP Candidate Colleen Ross put out a news release attacking her B.C. Liberal opponent, MLA Linda Larson, for holding an exclusive $2,500-a-plate fundraiser in Kelowna the week before.
There were a couple problems.
First, the planned fundraiser wasn’t in fact held.
Second, even if it had gone ahead, Larson would not have been doing anything illegal.
“Linda should disclose how much was raised at this event and whether any of that money came from residents of Boundary-Similkameen,” Ross stated in the news release. It’s troubling that Larson’s campaign is funded almost entirely by rich donors who don’t live here.”
The fundraiser that never took place was scheduled for Friday, Jan. 27 – the same day Environment Minister Mary Polak was in Osoyoos to announce her government was moving forward with proposals to protect lands in the South Okanagan, possibly with a national park reserve.
Larson apparently dined with the minister instead of with big wheel donors.
Ross says when the news release went out five days after the alleged fundraiser, “we had no idea whether or not it did happen.”
She now says the event was cancelled because not enough people outside the constituency wanted to pay $2,500 a plate to rub shoulders with Larson.
Ross says if she were offered a similar fundraiser, she would insist it be held in Boundary-Similkameen and that it would not be an exclusive event.
If Larson had in fact raised $50,000 by 20 out-of-constituency attendees paying $2,500, as Ross’s news release suggests, the optics would have been very bad, but there is nothing in B.C.’s election laws that would have prohibited it.
And that’s the real story.
B.C.’s campaign contribution laws invite abuse. Most other provinces and the federal government have political contribution laws that severely limit or prohibit wealthy individuals, corporations and unions from buying politicians. In B.C., it’s open season.
The New York Times last month ran a story headed: “British Columbia: The ‘Wild West’ of Canadian Political Cash.”
B.C. has no limits on political donations, unlike other provinces.
“Wealthy individuals, corporations and even foreigners are allowed to donate large amounts to political parties there,” wrote Dan Levin in the New York Times.
“Much of what is considered business as usual in B.C. is illegal elsewhere in Canada,” the story continued.
The federal government and Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Alberta all prohibit donations from corporations and unions.
At the federal level, donations by individuals are limited to $1,525 a year. In Quebec, that limit is just $100.
Kinder Morgan and other petroleum and mining companies have all contributed large amounts to B.C. Liberal coffers. When the government makes decisions that favour those companies, as they did recently with the Trans Mountain pipeline, it raises questions.
In B.C., the NDP, the Green Party and Conservative Party have all called for a ban on corporate and union donations.
The divide on this issue is neither left nor right. Rather, it’s one of parties in power, regardless of ideology, seeking to sell influence for political fundraising advantage.
Ironically, it was the B.C. Liberals’ federal counterparts, the Reform Party, the forerunner of the Stephen Harper Conservatives, that pioneered the approach of raising many small donations as opposed to fewer big ones.
The B.C. Liberals should learn from that example.
Hopefully in the future Ross will be more careful with the news releases she puts out.
But if she wants to make political fundraising an issue in this election, I wish her luck. It’s overdue.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Richard McGuire is a reporter/photographer with the Osoyoos Times. His education is in political science and political economy and he worked 14 years at the House of Commons in Ottawa.
