With less than a year to go before the municipal election, the new NDP government has brought in legislation that will ban corporate and union donations, limit personal political contributions to $1,200 per year (including self-funded campaigns) and bar donations from outside the province.
The annual donation limits are still a little high for our liking but we’ve published a great many editorials over the years calling for electoral finance reform and this goes a long way to removing one of the most embarrassing stains on our political landscape. People don’t like the thought of vested interests having so much opportunity to influence local elections.
This issue was particularly noteworthy in the City of North Vancouver where the mayor and his allies on council received tens of thousands of dollars in support from developers and unions, many of whom had projects or labour contracts coming before council for a decision. Were these decisions tainted by the campaign donations? Likely not. There was far less developer money spent on our other two North Shore councils but they all have roughly the same attitude towards development. But the presence of the donated money sullies the discourse and distracts us from the real debate about the merits of these proposals in their own right.
We’d like to see these new rules enforced by the province with zeal. We’re just now emerging from a long period being seen as the “Wild West” for our almost total lack of campaign finance rules and lackadaisical enforcement of the few we had. We look forward to the 2018 municipal elections with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. When it comes to the local campaign trail, being able to say “Your money’s no good here” to vested interests will be a breath of fresh air.
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