There’s been a cheeky suggestion making the political rounds that candidates should make their public appearances in a manner similar to race car drivers – in suits with the sponsorship logos of their financial donors on prominent display. It highlights the fact that big money is a large factor in B.C. politics.
In the past week, the subject blew up in a spat between the Liberals and NDP over softwood lumber.
Both parties have accused each other of selling out to influence peddlers. The NDP wagged its finger at Christy Clark for being compromised by taking corporate donations from Weyerhaeuser, a multinational forest company that has also lobbied in the U.S. for increased tariffs.
Clark shot back that key staff in the NDP war room are being paid for by the United Steelworkers union, which has also lobbied for tariffs in the U.S.
Thanks to B.C.’s lax laws on political fundraising, both main parties are compromised. Whether or not the money makes a real difference when it comes to policy, the perception certainly remains that it could.
So far the Greens are the only party that has rejected corporate and union donations.
The NDP has promised to ban corporate and union donations if elected. In the meantime, it continues to take the cash, giving the party an unavoidable air of hypocrisy on the issue.
While no law regulating political finance is perfect (as the federal parties have amply demonstrated), some kind of regulation is long overdue in B.C., which lags behind most other jurisdictions.
It’s well past the time for B.C.’s political Wild West to enter the next century.
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