MUNICIPAL POLITICS TOO? A8 PALMER’S VIEW,
Idea of using public cash was supposed to go to a committee; what happened?
Premier John Horgan offered no apologies on Tuesday for the NDP decision to break a campaign promise and immediately begin handing out millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to political parties.
“I’m owning up to what I said before the campaign,” Horgan told reporters, referring to his pre-election promise to appoint an independent commission to review party financing. “I don’t want you to think that I’m running away from this because I am not.”
A day earlier he did walk away from a media event on the government’s new electoral reform legislation, rather than take questions about the publicly funded aspect of the scheme.
“But it is not what you are making it out to be,” Horgan continued Tuesday. “This is a transition fund and will be gone at the end of this mandate.”
Far from being transitional, the NDP legislation provides permanent public reimbursement for party election spending to the tune of an estimated $11 million every four years.
A second subsidy, an annual operating grant to parties based on votes cast in the last election, extends a full year beyond the scheduled date for the next election. The estimated payout for the first five years is $20 million and it could be extended indefinitely on the recommendation of a legislature committee.
Horgan further characterized the projected payout as “a modest cost to taxpayers in the grand scheme of things.” Only two months in the premier’s office, and he’s already gained a government perspective on $30 million.
Despite Horgan’s insistence that he would “own up” for what he said before the election, he struggled with the that-was-then, this-is-now aspect of the reversal.
For he not only promised to send the issue of party financing to an independent commission, he mocked and scorned suggestions that taxpayer subsidies were in his mind all along.
Take the scene in the NDP caucus room back in February, when Horgan laid out the model legislation that became the NDP platform on reforming the electoral process.
He was asked point blank about the accusation from then-premier Christy Clark that he would soon be tapping the provincial treasury to fund his party and others.
“It’s always alternative facts with the premier,” said Horgan, full of sanctimony. “The premier in all of her distortions — she said my preference was taxpayers pay for political parties. That’s just not the case. It is up to the independent head of Elections B.C. and the committee that will be struck to take a look at all the options and bring forward the best one for B.C.”
He had said much the same thing in response to much the same question from broadcaster Al Ferraby on radio station CFAX.
“Again, more distortion, more fabrication, more making stuff up by the premier,” replied Horgan. “At no time have I said that I prefer to make public dollars responsible for political parties. Again, the premier is just making stuff up. I believe we need to get big money out of politics.”
Never did he let on that the plan to get big corporate, union and individual money out of politics could entail substituting big money from taxpayers. Why did Horgan substitute the twin subsidies for the promise to send the question of replacement financing — if any — to a panel headed by chief electoral officer Keith Archer?
“I don’t want to leave you with the impression I was fixed on this, I wasn’t,” the premier told reporters. “I was fixed on making sure we got big money out of politics. I was fixed on forming a majority government. That didn’t happen. Now I deal with the circumstances I find myself in. This is in no way suggesting Mr. Weaver and his colleagues had any undue influence.”
Good thing he added that last bit about his partner in power sharing, Andrew Weaver.
Earlier in the day, the Green leader denied promoting taxpayer funding of political parties in consultations with the NDP.
“We did not push for the subsidy … we did not bring that to the table,” said Weaver, leaving reporters to assume that the sudden injection of taxpayer dollars into the mix was entirely the work of Horgan and the NDP.
While disclaiming authorship, Weaver said the Greens would support the subsidies as a “best practice” borrowed from other Canadian jurisdictions like Quebec and Ontario.
He also tried to provide some cover for the NDP leader, albeit in a backhanded kind of way.
“I think Mr. Horgan in the election campaign probably wasn’t thinking the whole thing through,” said the Green leader. “He wanted to ban big money and they brought in bills to do so. I suspect the realization is if you do that, you are going to have to follow a model like others have done it.”
Still, it was not just Horgan that promised to send the options for party financing to an independent commission. The commitment was also incorporated into the text of the partnership agreement the Greens reached with the New Democrats after the election.
Quote: “The parties agree that legislation will be introduced in the first sitting of the next session of the legislature to conduct a review of campaign finance and the Elections Act.”
Horgan reneged on what he promised to do before the election. But Weaver, no less than Horgan, is bypassing a promise they made together in jockeying for power after the election.
I’m owning up to what I said before the campaign. I don’t want you to think that I’m running away from this because I am not.
JOHN HORGAN, premier