Todd: Finally, the party’s over for unlimited political donations

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Dermod Travis did not have the satisfaction of a cleaner election in British Columbia.

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The CEO of Integrity BC, who arguably fought harder than anyone to end the way unlimited corporate, union and foreign donations were allowed to buy political influence in this province, died June 1 of liver failure, two days shy of his 60th birthday.

This fall’s election in British Columbia is the first to be held under new regulations designed to end the shady process by which hundreds of millions of dollars in “gifts” have been funneled to the province’s political parties. The scheme had turned British Columbia into an outlier among global democracies.

Even the United States, known for how big money twists its politics, has laws against what happened in British Columbia, which included uncapped donations from foreign nationals and offshore companies. That’s why a shocked New York Times sent a reporter here in early 2017 to write about “British Columbia: The Wild West of Political Money.”

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During the 2017 BC election, the unregulated world of political donations was one of the most burning issues for the governing Liberals. An Angus Reid poll found that nearly three in four residents wanted a cap on union and corporate donations – 76% agreed: “The BC government only wants to help its political donors and big corporations. companies.

While politics will never be absolutely pure, this election is, by definition, more fair because, in late 2017, BC’s new NDP government moved to ban corporate donations. , unions and foreigners. Now, only individual offers are allowed, capped at $1,253 per person.

The reform led to cuts in staffing and advertising budgets for the NDP, Liberals and Greens. This is partly the reason – in addition to COVID-19 restrictions – that voters have not been so assaulted by partisan marketing in print, radio, television and social media.

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Donations to the NDP have dropped precipitously, mainly because unions can no longer donate. Last year, the NDP accepted $3.7 million in donations, up from $16.1 million in 2017. (Even though it was an election year, in which their donations jumped much more.)

The BC Liberals have seen a roughly 80% drop in donations from 2017, mostly because businesses can no longer donate money. Last year, the Liberals accepted $2.9 million in donations, compared to $16.6 million in 2017, $12.3 million in 2016 and $9.3 million in 2015.

The B.C. Greens also saw a sharp decline, of around 65%. The party took in $642,000 last year, up from $1.8 million in 2017.

While the parties are undoubtedly missing out on the extra cash, Travis would have reason to smile that the potential for big-budget influence peddling has drastically diminished.

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“British Columbia is distinguished by its unapologetically comfortable relationship between private interests and government officials,” Travis had said. He joined global democracy scholars in warning against legislation being shaped by the highest bidder.

Former British Columbia Liberal cabinet minister Moira Stilwell, a radiologist who resigned as MPP for Vancouver-Langara in 2017, has joined the ranks of those who argue that political parties in British Columbia have become too open to corruption.

“The idea that politicians are not influenced by money is not true, and everyone knows it,” she said. “Democracy costs money. (But) the payment to play is out of control.

Travis discovered through his hard research that the Liberals attracted $119 million in political donations from corporations between 2005 and the last election. The NDP had received $12 million from the unions.

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BC Liberals had become so used to the flood of corporate and foreign money that former BC premier Christy Clark did not apologize for receiving 277 $000 in extra pay from his own party for several years. Its complement came of course from donors.

Today’s lower donation amounts don’t just affect ad budgets during the campaign, which have spending limits. They also reduce the type of marketing that can take place before the official start of a campaign, which the The Liberals effectively used .

One of the anomalies that caught the attention of The New York Times was the way BC politicians were raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign corporations. The threat to sovereignty was profound.

For Travis, every foreign donation rightly violated a fundamental democratic principle: “If you are not a citizen, you do not have the right to vote. And you shouldn’t be allowed to donate to a political party.

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Despite the bloated profile of political finance in the last election, none of BC’s three largest parties mention it in their 2020 campaign platforms.

Nor do politicians draw attention to the way parties are now wooed by large donations: each accepts an annual government grant of $2.50 for each vote they received in the last election. It is a system that mirrors the way parties are generally financed in most democracies that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The BC Liberals and BC Greens did not respond to calls for interviews about political donations. However, British Columbia Attorney General David Eby, the NDP candidate in Point Grey-Vancouver, attacked it.

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“It’s interesting in the sense that when you think about the previous election, the influence of a donor who can write a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars no longer exists. This distortion effect is not there as much. That’s not to say there aren’t people who don’t try to bend these rules. »

That’s why I wish the Executive Director of Integrity BC was still in the job – tirelessly probing to expose the many ways politicians and others try to poison our fragile democratic system.

dtodd@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/douglastodd