Monday, December 9, 2002

OTTAWA - Democracy Watch's nation-wide Money in Politics Coalition today criticized Prime Minister Jean Chrétien for breaking his promise to introduce new political fundraising rules in November. The coalition also called on the Prime Minister not to abandon the idea of banning donations by corporations, unions and other organizations (two provinces prohibit such donations).

"The Liberal strategy for dealing with Canada's loophole-ridden political fundraising rules has been to delay, dither, and deceive," said Democracy Watch Board Member Aaron Freeman, who chairs Democracy Watch's nation-wide Money in Politics Coalition made up of 50 citizen groups whose collective membership totals more than 2 million Canadians.

The federal government has made a series of promises to rein in the influence of money in politics. Prime Minister Chrétien's June 11, 2002 "ethics package" news release promised that the government will "propose changes this fall to rules governing the financing of political parties and candidates to enhance the fairness and transparency of the electoral system." [emphasis added]

In the news release, the government promised that "Changes will be proposed to set specific limits on donations from corporations, unions and individuals, and to introduce enhanced tax measures facilitating individual contributions. All Members of Parliament will be required to disclose all contributions on a regular basis. . ." [emphasis added]. In addition, the news release promised to require disclosure of the identity of donors and donations made through provincial political entities, trust funds and riding associations, and to require disclosure of donors and donations to party leadership candidates and riding nomination candidates (as well as disclosure of the expenses recorded by those candidates).

The Liberals' October 23, 2002 news release promised that the new political fundraising rules "will be brought forward in November." Chrétien promised at a November 26th Liberal party fundraiser in Toronto that "next week, we will be introducing a bill to radically reform the financing of political parties." Through last week, media reports indicated that the government was close to introducing legislation banning donations from corporations, unions and other organizations and limiting individual donations (as in Québec and Manitoba), increasing public financing of candidates and parties, and requiring full disclosure of all donors and donations.

"The Liberals promise-making and promise-breaking record on money in politics is becoming as bad as their record of broken promises in the area of government ethics," said Freeman. "Given Canada's democratic system of one-person, one-vote, it should be very clear to the Liberals that only voters should be allowed to make political donations, and no one voter should be allowed to make large donations as a way of having more political influence than other voters."

The Money in Politics Coalition called on the federal Liberals to keep their promises by introducing money in politics reforms this week, before Parliament closes down on Friday for its break until February. The Coalition also called on the Prime Minister to stick to the plan of banning donations from corporations and other non-voters, to set a low limit on donations from individuals (in Québec and Manitoba (which also have a ban on corporate donations) the annual limit is $3,000), and to require full disclosure of all donations.

Strong measures are needed to address the growing concern of Canadians about the influence of wealthy interests on the federal government (as shown in many recent polls). Such measures are also supported by Industry Minister Allan Rock, several Liberal backbenchers, Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper, the NDP and the Bloc Québecois.

"If corporations and other organizations are allowed to make donations, and donations from individuals are not strictly limited, wealthy interests will exploit loopholes in the system to continue using money as an undemocratic lever of influence over politicians," said Freeman.