Political finance in spotlight as NDP, Greens vow reforms
Liberals say disclosure of donors’ contributions better than bans
The B.C. Greens and NDP both hope to address criticism of B.C. Liberal fundraising tactics by promising sweeping political finance reforms if elected May 9.
Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver rolled out commitments Monday to ban political donations from unions, corporations and non-residents of B.C., place annual limits on individual donations, and prohibit cabinet ministers from engaging in partisan fundraising activities while in office.
The Green Party stopped accepting corporate and union donations last September and Weaver believes the issue continues to resonate with voters.
“It boils down to the issue of trust,” he said, while campaigning in his Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding on Monday. “How can you trust somebody to make decisions on your behalf when they’re accepting vast quantities of money from corporations and unions?”
NDP Leader John Horgan made similar promises last week, as both parties hope to capitalize on repeated broadsides against B.C. Liberal “cash-for-access” fundraisers, in which donors paid thousands of dollars to attend dinners with Leader Christy Clark and her ministers.
The NDP platform, like the Greens’, calls for a ban on corporate and union donations, limits on individual contributions and a prohibition on out-of-province donations.
Gary Holman, incumbent NDP candidate in Saanich North and the Islands, said his party began pushing for political financing reforms long before Weaver arrived in the legislature four years ago. “We’ve presented private members’ legislation six times and it’s been rejected every time by the Liberal government,” he said.
Weaver has accused the NDP of hypocrisy for continuing to accept union donations while calling for a ban. But Holman said the NDP is playing by existing rules and remains committed to changing the law once in office.
“We are not going to fall on our sword on the eve of a provincial election fighting the most moneyed government in Canadian history,” he said. “We’re not just wanting to elect one or two other Greens; we’re wanting to form a government in British Columbia and we need to fight that fair fight. We’ll play by the rules and then we’ll change the rules.”
The B.C. Liberals have rejected a ban on corporate and union donations, arguing that it would lead to taxpayers subsidizing political parties. The party favours more frequent disclosure of donors and their contributions.
“I believe that British Columbians want transparency from political parties about their fundraising,” VancouverQuilchena Liberal candidate Andrew Wilkinson said in a statement Monday. “That is why the B.C. Liberal Party proactively discloses our donations in real time. Unfortunately, the B.C. NDP and Green Party have refused to tell British Columbians who is donating how much to them — until after the election.”
The B.C. Liberal platform promises to amend the Elections Act to require “real time” disclosure by all parties. The Liberals introduced similar legislation in the most recent sitting of the legislature, but failed to pass it before the session ended.
The Liberals also intend to commission an independent panel to review proposals for improving B.C.’s political fundraising system. “We believe that these decisions should not be made by politicians,” Wilkinson said.
Holman, who has been the NDP’s point person on democratic reform issues, agrees with Weaver that the Liberals are vulnerable on the issue of big money in politics. “I hear it at the doorstep every day, including from folks who voted Liberal in the past. Certainly, in my constituency, which I know best, it’s really ringing a bell. People are sick and tired of it.”
Meanwhile, Weaver announced Monday that a Green government would replace B.C.’s first-pastthe-post electoral system with a proportional voting system in time for the 2021 election.
He said the change will be made without a referendum. “A referendum will be brought in after the people of B.C. have had a chance to explore what it means to actually elect MLAs through proportional representation.”
Holman said previous referendums on changing the voting system have failed, so voters would be “disrepected” if there’s a unilateral change without getting a clear mandate to do so. He said an NDP government will hold a referendum on switching to proportional representation and campaign for the “Yes” side.
BURNABY — New Democrat Leader John Horgan took aim on Monday at the B.C. Liberals’ failed pledge to match every British Columbian with a family doctor by promoting his party’s strategy to build team-based urgent care centres.
The centres would be open evenings and weekends and would allow patients to see the care provider that fits their needs, whether it’s a doctor, nurse practitioner or counsellor, Horgan said at a campaign stop ahead of the May 9 election.
Horgan said Christy Clark’s Liberals are letting down patients, who are waiting for hours at walkin clinics or emergency rooms. The NDP said 700,000 people don’t have a family doctor, with 200,000 still looking for one.
“It’s a fundamental right in Canada to access our public health care system. I will defend that to my last breath,” Horgan said.
The NDP leader made the promise in Burnaby, flanked by two local residents who can’t find a family doctor. Sky Belt said her friend visited walk-in clinics several times for pain and was told she had anxiety before she was finally diagnosed with cancer.
“Those months that she spent not having a family doctor have made her situation very critical,” Belt said.
The Liberals estimated in 2013 that 200,000 British Columbians didn’t have a family doctor. They campaigned in 2010 and 2013 on providing a family doctor to every resident who wanted one by 2015, but conceded two years ago they would not meet their target.
The website for the “GP For Me” program says 178,000 people who did not have a family doctor were able to get one by 2016. But B.C.’s population also grew by 162,600 between 2013 and 2016.
The Liberal platform includes $2.7 billion for new hospitals, 500 additional long-term care beds and 5,500 more hip and knee surgeries.
Campaigning in Campbell River, Clark highlighted her government’s record on helping business, such as phasing out the provincial sales tax on electricity that she said would save businesses $160 million a year, including pulp and paper companies on north Vancouver Island.
Vancouver Island has been a stronghold for the NDP but Clark said the Island has a successful economic record because of Liberal policies.
She said the unemployment rate on the north island is half what it was under the last NDP government.
“More people are working and our jobs plan has worked for British Columbia,” she said.
“We’ve supported the private sector in creating thousands of jobs here and I don’t think people, whether in the south island, the mid-island or the north island, want to give up that prosperity. We want to keep this going.”
Horgan’s promise was short on details, with no specific number of urgent-care centres an NDP government would build or a cost estimate.
He said the party would shift priorities to make room in the existing health budget. “We want to assemble those teams in a costeffective way,” he said.
Later, Horgan visited Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital, a shuttered mental-health institution, where he has promised to reopen some residential care facilities. The NDP would also establish a Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions to help people get timely and effective treatment.
Green party Leader Andrew Weaver, who is campaigning on a promise to “do politics differently,” unveiled his party’s platform on democratic reform in Victoria.
He said his party would establish a public watchdog to oversee government advertising and communications, block cabinet ministers from engaging in partisan fundraising, ban corporate, union and out-of-province donations, and place limits on individual contributions that would be in line with current federal limits.