New funding approach gives citizens a voice

Re: “Donations bill shabby betrayal,” editorial, Sept. 20.

I must confess that I cannot understand the editorial’s outrage at our new government’s bill to restore ownership of government to citizens instead of corporations and unions.

The piece opens with the erroneous claim that getting “big money” out of B.C. politics means “not just donations but the massive spending and permanent political staff, consultants and lobbyists.” That highly original interpretation is nothing I have heard promised by any party. This list of presumably unsavoury villains seems plopped down at the start for the sole purpose of rousing negative emotions. Ditto the tasteless reference to a “rotting carcass.” None of these bogeymen have anything to do with the bill.

All parties, in government or in opposition, require staff and consultants. Lobbyists don’t even belong on this list. They are paid neither by parties, government nor taxpayers. Better yet, they will no longer be able to buy influence with cold cash. Their influence will be limited to the validity of their sponsors’ ideas and to their own powers of persuasion — qualities that many ordinary citizens possess.

The bill is meant to reduce oversize corporate and union donations that, by their sheer size, reduce ordinary citizens’ voices and influence to mere background noise. It is time to put an end to this pretence of democracy and to try the real thing. Marty Hykin Victoria