A few years ago, the province put together a task force on reforming rules for local elections. The group received public comment and made recommendations. Unfortunately, the most important of those — spending and contribution limits — were shelved.
With municipal politicians increasingly seen as big league prospects, we’ll leave it to the cynical to guess why that might have been. But now — with a legislative committee discussing the issue — election finance reform is back on the agenda; it’s something incoming councillor Carol Day of RITE Richmond ran on.
One need only look to recent campaigns in the City of Vancouver to realize that without regulation, obscene amounts of money are being raised and spent on local elections.
To a lesser extent, similar patterns are evident in Richmond — with the cost of running for public office climbing ever higher. Take Day’s slate, which spent $16,000 more this election compared to last (although the vast majority was Day and candidate Michael Wolfe’s personal money). That leaves candidates either taking money from groups whose interests are directly affected by civic leaders’ decisions or hoping for lottery wins.
Limits on both spending and donations are long overdue. Accepting donations from particular groups doesn’t mean candidates are necessarily beholden to them, but it would be silly to pretend an uncomfortable perception isn’t being created.
Reasonable limits, combined with disclosure of donations before voters head to the polls, would go a long way to fixing this.
