The Chretien government solved the corruption problem with election financing. They brought into law that the taxpayer would be financing our elections.
Each party would receive $2.00 per vote.
Harper's government cancelled this act his the reasoning was the taxpayer should not be financing the election.
Well, when someone is given a 50%-75% tax receipt or refund on their contributions and then include what corporations, unions and lobby groups that buy tables to events and make political donations for the tax write-offs, at the end of the day the Canadian taxpayer is financing our elections anyways.
Only difference between Chretien's election financing policy and [the previous Prime Minister] Harper's is that an elected government under Chretien’s model doesn't owe anything to the lobby groups unions or corporations therefore an elected MP can work for the people that elected him or her.
For me when someone says China and Russia are influencing North American elections in reality the only influence they have would be how much money they are willing to donate to your party and who do they funnel the money through that's it.
They don't need an inquiry to tell me that China donated 3 million to a party through corporation ABC.
Did Chretien's policy on election financing favor the Liberal party? Absolutely…100%, [I believe]…
But at least his government didn't owe any political favors to anyone.
Thanks,
Darrin Lamoureux
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
