Money – as parents are genetically mandated to inform their children – doesn’t grow on trees. It grows on election cycles.
B.C. has been filthy with lucre recently: the minimum wage jumped 40 cents, the hike to Medical Services Plan premiums was cancelled, and even the boost to ICBC rates was a pittance given the horrifying crash numbers.
But if you believe money is the root of all evil, the NDP has a troubling surplus of good.
The NDP was $152,000 in debt at the end of 2015 and well short of fundraising goals, according to a recent Vancouver Sun report.
And they need that money to pay for obnoxious bus tours, to finance polls that oscillate from optimistic to deluded, and to pare complex policy down to slogans short enough to be ironed onto a T-shirt. In short, the stuff that wins elections.
But it would be a travesty if the rattle of coins distracted British Columbians from a transit quagmire, a rental housing crisis, a very worrying rate of child poverty, an unambitious climate change plan and the major resource projects that will likely define our province’s future – one way or another.
Agatha Christie once wrote that where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody. It’s probably advisable to trust nobody where small sums are concerned as well.
Money is a corrupting force in politics. In the upcoming election, please don’t sell your vote.
Or at the very least, don’t sell it cheap.
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