Foreign influence happens here, too
You’d think it was a uniquely American problem. All of this talk south of the border of impeachment, Russia, the Comey firing. It all has its root in the idea foreign influence swayed the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
But it’s not just in the U.S. that the problem exists. It’s here in Canada as well.
A recent Postmedia story on foreign funding in our last election spells it out plain and simple.
The Calgary Herald’s Licia Corbella details a report sent to Elections Canada by a group called Canada Decides, which includes former Conservative MP Joan Crockatt. It draws attention to all of the money that registered third parties in the 2015 federal election received from foreign sources.
As Corbella explains: “In total, the 114 third parties (registered in 2015) spent $6 million and many of those third parties were funded by California-and New Yorkbased Tides Foundation — which is known in Canada for holding numerous anti-Canadian oil campaigns. In 2015, Tides Foundation donated $1.5 million of U.S. money to Canadian third parties in the election year, according to the report.”
Yes, an American organization that in turn receives its own money from various sources, including billionaire George Soros, contributed whopping sums to Canadian third parties. You’d think this would be illegal. It’s not. Canadians are limited to donating $1,550 a year to candidates and parties. Corporations and unions are banned entirely.
Yet because of loopholes, foreign organizations can legally inject significantly more money into the system.
Conservative Senator Linda Frum plans to introduce legislation to correct this troubling oversight. Good.
The organizations Canada Decides focuses on left-wing, activist groups that were openly against the re-election of Stephen Harper.
Supporters of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and anti-Harper types, may then shrug off these concerns.
But it cuts both ways. What if pro-Conservative groups were receiving millions from outside interests? That too is possible and would be legal.
So let’s cut it all out. At a committee hearing on the issue last year, Conservative Senator Daniel Lang warned we are “going down the slippery slope where outside interests are deciding the outcome of our elections and Canadians won’t even know it.”
This problem needs to be addressed.