You’d think the New York Times would have its hands full dealing with the reek of apparent corruption closer to home. They have bureaus in Washington and New Jersey, for heaven’s sake.
But their Canadian correspondent’s attention turned to the Pacific last week with a brisk drive-by summation of the state of ethics in B.C., “the wild west of political cash.”
He noted Premier Christy Clark’s extra stipend, the cosy relationship B.C. Liberals have with business and the conflict-of-interest commissioner’s perfect record of dismissing complaints against a government his son is a senior official in. Mostly, he detailed the wide-open fundraising scene where, for the Liberals, there are no limits, no donors turned away and no problems buying cocktail-party facetime with anyone from the premier on down.
British Columbians can walk a little taller today. We’ve been noticed.
As that story was being digested, the Liberals took a tentative step in the vague direction of being seen to be doing something about this, without in any way endangering the flow of cash. It arose from developments last year. Ontario has been having an argument about fundraising as well, and last summer it washed over to B.C., since routine practices here are mostly illegal now in Ontario, as of this month, and elsewhere.
That’s mildly embarrassing. So Clark announced she was instituting more disclosure. All donations to the party would be publicly disclosed within days of their deposit, rather than listed in the statutory release that all parties have to make once a year. Last Friday, it kicked in.
The statement is a curious marvel of logic. “Premier Clark committed last year that the B.C. Liberals would not wait for legislation in order to enhance their own transparency.”
But it’s her government that would legislate.
She seems to be saying: “I’m not going to wait until I require myself to do something. I’m going to do it right now.”
So she did it. Fourteen pages full of the usual suspects’ names, listing several hundred thousand dollars raked in during the first two weeks of January. (Most notable was the $100,000 from Goldcorp Inc., a huge Vancouver-based mining firm.)
It’s an odd contrast. B.C. Liberals are now, proudly, voluntarily publicizing donations that in Ontario would get them convictions and stiff fines.
Under the party’s new system, these batches will be posted routinely, a few times a month, rather than once a year after being submitted to Elections B.C.
If parties were relatively evenly matched in fundraising, there would be much less concern. But B.C. Liberals make a fortune every year off corporations and the wealthy, leaving the NDP well behind. B.C. Greens forgo corporate and union donations and are even further behind.
Everyone’s playing by the same rules. But the huge gaps further the impression the system isn’t fair. Liberals are literally embarrassed by their riches. They tried to interpret their own numbers to show individual donors outnumber corporations four to one, and most corporate donations are under $5,000.
But the bottom line for 2016, which was also released Friday, tells the tale. Liberals got $8 million from corporations in 2016, $4.4 million from individuals.
Greens collected $764,000, almost double the previous year’s take, but still only six per cent of the governing party’s haul.
The NDP haven’t released 2016 figures, but they will likely be comparable to the $4.4 million in 2015.
There’s something forlorn and almost woebegone in the NDP fundraising pitch that the B.C. Liberals released Monday to deflect attention.
The letter was targeted to business leaders who donated to the Liberals. It itemizes their donation to the other guys and says: “It is my hope that you will adopt a balanced approach … and consider making a contribution in the range of $10,0000 to the B.C. NDP.”
Not only begging for fairness, but stipulating how much they want.
Just So You Know: The Liberals’ 2016 list has an amusing sidenote. The B.C. Real Estate Association made three donations totalling $7,000 up to last June. Then in July, the government clamped down on the industry, imposed a foreign-buyers tax and tried to curb the market. The association has donated $450 since then.
