12 March 2009

Preventing Wealthy from Buying Elections

It blows my mind to have to say this, but here is one piece of legislation on which the Harper Conservatives and I agree.
Steven Fletcher, minister of state for democratic reform, intends to reintroduce a bill that would make it impossible for politicians to rely on hefty loans from wealthy individuals to finance their campaigns.

The move is intended to close a "loophole" in political financing laws, which Fletcher maintains allowed Liberal leadership contenders to do an end run around strict limits on donations by borrowing huge amounts of money from rich supporters.

As long as this legislation doesn't also include other items buried within it - such as removing the $1.75 per vote subsidy received by parties, which would disproportionately affect low income voters -, then I wholeheartedly support it.

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