Five years ago, new rules were brought in governing the way local election campaigns are financed. The changes were intended to make the civic political arena less of a Wild West, to level the playing field and get big money out of municipal campaigns.
But the changes have failed badly to make good on their intentions.
The 2022 civic election campaign saw record spending in two out of three municipalities on the North Shore. Nor was that spending an anomaly. More money was spent on several civic election campaigns, particularly in the Lower Mainland.
While donations from corporations are now banned, a look at the donor lists shows considerable money for elections still flowing from the same sources, just from individuals closely tied to the industry. If anything, the change serves only to make those contributions less transparent.
On the spending side of the ledger, having a limit during the campaign itself but no limit during the months leading up to it means functionally there is no limit on campaign spending.
Adding to confusion, the way spending is accounted for is obscure, and seemingly left up to interpretation.
As far as we can tell, Elections BC appears to rely on scout’s honour when it comes to following the rules, with $100 fines for missing required information on brochures the extent of its enforcement.
The changes heralded in 2017 were supposed to help restore faith in the electoral system. That they’ve fallen short of that goal indicates it’s time to revisit some of the more obvious failings.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
