The Harper government deserves two and a half cheers for its plan to kick political parties and politicians out of the tax trough.
The plan, which was announced Thursday when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered his fiscal update, is to deny political parties their annual public subsidy.
The way it works now, a political party collects $1.95 in public funds for every vote it receives in the most recent federal election.
Thanks to this subsidy the Conservative Party would rake in about $10-million this year, the Liberals $7.7-million, the NDP $4.9-million, the Bloc Québécois $ 2.6-million and the Green Party $1.8-million.
It’s hard to think of this arrangement as anything else but a taxpayer-funded welfare plan for politicians.
And talk about a misallocation of resources. Surely in this time of economic crisis Canadians would rather see their taxes spent on more worthwhile causes than financing political propaganda.
Besides, using government money to subsidize politicians is inherently undemocratic; it’s essentially forcing taxpayers to finance political causes they may not support. That’s wrong.
Hence I give two and half cheers for Prime Minister Harper’s bold proposal to do away with this ludicrous subsidy scheme.
Why not the traditional three cheers?
Because I am disappointed the Harper government isn’t also scrapping Canada’s campaign finance laws which make it illegal for individuals to contribute more than $1,100 per year to a political party.
It’s just a question of fairness. If the government is going to get rid of the subsidy and require political parties to rely solely on voluntary contributions, logically it must also discard this overly strict limit on donations.
After all, this absurdly low limit cripples a political party’s ability to effectively fundraise.
Mind you, it might not hurt the Conservative party’s fundraising efforts, since it has a large network of grassroots supporters who regularly contribute less than $1,000, but it would drastically impair the Liberal party which in the past has relied on fewer and larger donations.
Of course, a lot of people reading this might be saying to themselves, “Anything that hurts the Liberals can’t be a bad thing.”
But our laws are not supposed to be about giving one party an advantage over another; they are supposed to be about protecting the democratic process. And just as subsidies to politicians are undemocratic, so are campaign contribution limits.
In fact, they amount to a kind of “gag law,” infringing on the right of free political expression.
When I make a contribution to a political party I am making a statement. For the government to limit my right to donate my own money to my own political cause is to limit my democratic right of free speech.
So while Prime Minister Harper is definitely doing the right thing in scrapping the subsidy, he would be doing an even better thing if he also scrapped the contribution limit.
It’s just a matter of making our democratic process fair for both taxpayers and politicians.
