Lax rules, raise many questions

The interaction between monied interests and politics is very topical these days. Federally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is dogged by questions about so-called “cash for access” fundraisers. And recently, the New York Times drew embarrassing international attention to British Columbia, which it called the “Wild West of Canadian political cash” - increasingly conspicuous among Canadian provinces for its loose political finance laws allowing anyone (or anything), from anywhere, to contribute any amount to political parties and politicians.

And yet here on P.E.I. we have just as much cause for concern in this matter as British Columbians. The headline could just as easily have read “P.E.I., the Wild East of political cash.”

For on virtually every point, the political finance laws here are just as lax if not even more so than in B.C.

Here, too, unrestricted corporate and union contributions reign supreme.

Did you know that in 2015 alone, a total of $870,965.30 flowed into P.E.I.

Liberal coffers, with at least 61 per cent of that money coming from corporations - many of them based in other provinces?

The same year, the PC Party received 56 per cent of its $487,840.71 income from corporations.

While smaller in absolute terms, relative to our size the presence of big money in politics is even greater here. During our latest election year, 2015, the four main Island political parties raised a total of $1,458,885.01, or approximately $9.79 for every Islander. By comparison, total fundraising by BC’s main parties during their last election year in 2013 works out to “only” $5.64 per British Columbian. Altogether, a total of $831,965.21 in corporate and union donations flowed into the P.E.I. Liberal, PC and NDP parties in 2015 alone, representing 57 per cent of all political contributions that year. If he who pays the piper calls the tune, who are the political power brokers in our province?

Yet if corporations are paying the piper, we’re all subsidizing the corporations. P.E.I.’s generous tax credits for political contributions means that the Liberal and PC parties’ corporate benefactors were eligible for up to $220,000 in tax credits in 2015 alone - approximately half the amount of money the Public Schools Branch aims to save by closing five Island schools.

Why does this matter? I contend that it matters for the very reason that if we are to be a democracy, it is the people not corporations, unions, or a wealthy elite - that are supposed to be the source of power and direction in our government.

This is why citizens have the right to an equal vote in elections, but corporations don’t. When the contributions of monied interests become the bread and butter of political parties, it is reasonable to assume that this reality influences the policies and priorities of parties, politicians and of government itself.

Corporations don’t generally spend money without some expectation of a return.

To take the recent example of the sale of the old Albany McCain plant to MacDougall Steel, voters may rightly wonder whether the company’s contributions of $20,716 to the Liberals (and $10,431 to the PCs) over the past eight years could have played any role in “lubricating” the deal’s approval when at least two other apparently viable offers were turned down in the past couple of years.

While difficult to prove, even the perception that political contributions earn political favours corrodes people’s faith in their democratic institutions, damaging the institutions themselves.

That’s why I was so disappointed last month when Premier Wade MacLauchlan backtracked on his May 2016 pledge to ban corporate and union donations.

In place of a ban, he announced, he was now proposing a $3,000 annual cap on those donations instead, to take effect on Jan. 1, 2018. A $3,000 cap on corporate contributions will not remove the problem of big money in P.E.I. politics. 2015 contribution reports show that, had the cap been in place that year, the Liberal Party would have foregone a mere 11.5 per cent of donations, the PC Party only five per cent, and the NDP 13 per cent.

The Green Party, I’m proud to say, has never accepted corporate and union donations on principle for the reasons already outlined.

In other words, the Premier’s proposal is one of retrenchment of the status quo. In light of the national trend towards getting big money out of politics, the concerns about corporate influence on our democracy and the Premier’s earlier commitments to real political finance reform, accountability and transparency, it’s simply not good enough.