There's been a somewhat heartening trend this go-around in municipal elections. Vancouver's civic parties have effectively dared each other into revealing their campaign donor lists before Nov. 15.
Here on the North Shore, City of North Vancouver mayoral candidate George Pringle has been posting his campaign contributions and expenses online in real time (yes, there's a developer in there). And fellow challenger Kerry Morris has sworn he'll take no union or developer cash to fund his campaign. Other candidates for council are doing the same or both.
We applaud this. We will always come down on the side of transparency.
But of course, all of these are half-measures when compared to what ought to be happening. Only the province has the authority to create sensible and binding limits on who can donate and how much money politicians can spend to get elected.
We've castigated the province for missing the opportunity to do this before this election and we'll continue to prod them to get things in order in time for the next one.
In the meantime, don't be afraid to ask candidates how they're financing their campaigns. They'll probably be glad to get some face time with you.
But at the same time, be prepared to ask some other intelligent questions about - say - zoning, municipal services, transportation, TransLink, recreation, parks, affordable housing, amalgamation, waste reduction, infrastructure, public safety, taxes, openness and accountability or anything else in the constellation of issues our next council will have to deal with.
In the end, those will matter far more.
