Another thing that’s going to get resolved in the May 9 election is how much people care about the age-old topic of money in politics.
The Opposition latched on to campaign financing as a prime issue last year and tightened its grip throughout the five-week legislative session that concluded this week. The NDP and the Green Party, along with the media, have raised a litany of complaints about the current anything-goes approach to fundraising. The critics unleashed a blizzard of reform ideas, based on imposing numerous controls to limit union and corporate donations.
The B.C. Liberals’ stance was made clear in the past week: They are confident not many people really care. It’s an inside-politics issue, and its impact diminishes the further away you get from the legislature, they say. Voters are vastly more concerned with issues that directly affect their families.
The controversy did finally prompt Premier Christy Clark to announce plans months ago for a modest change to the current system.
It would have required more immediate, ongoing disclosure of donations by all parties, rather than just once a year.
But the extent of the government’s indifference was driven home on Thursday morning, when the Liberals let the bill die on the order paper. Liberals first touted the idea as a significant response to all the concerns raised. Then they waited until the last hectic week to introduce the actual bill and made minimal effort to get it to a vote.
The explanation was that it would likely have involved cutting off debate and forcing a vote, which is heavy-handed and rarely done. But if they were serious about the refinement they came up with, they could have gotten it passed.
(Another part of Clark’s response was to promise an independent review of the whole system, after the election. That doesn’t require legislation and is an NDP promise, as well, so it could happen.)
Finance Minister Mike de Jong dismissed the importance of the topic that dominated the session.
“The economy, job prospects — that’s all people are talking about. It’s easy over here to become preoccupied … The Opposition chose to focus on pretty much a single issue. … It’s not something that, candidly, I think the majority of British Columbians are preoccupied with, but we’ll see.”
Retiring Energy Minister Bill Bennett echoed that view.
“This is a manufactured issue by the NDP and the media,” he told the house. “Frankly, what people care about is getting good government — government that takes their tax dollars and spends them wisely, government that makes hard decisions.”
Community Minister Peter Fassbender added: “In all of the time that I have been out in the community, I have had very few members of the public say to me: ‘I’m concerned about the political donations to political parties.’ Whether it is the current government or whether it’s the opposition, it’s not a subject that people worry about.”
Liberals also launched an attack on NDP “hypocrisy,” dwelling on the fact the Opposition is hitting up business people for big donations just as hard as the Liberals are. NDP Leader John Horgan this week rapped Liberal connections to a big advertising firm while his party was asking it for funds.
But it’s the difference in each side’s assessment of how much traction this has that will drive developments.
There are valid reasons to think it’s catching on. It has been a big deal across Canada that various governments have been forced to address. The changes have left B.C. light years behind. That dovetails with the NDP plan to portray the government as stale and out of touch.
Still, there are lots of issues that consume the legislature, but are generally ignored by voters.
And there are lots of other campaign issues politicians will be obliged to talk about that hit a lot closer to voters’ homes.
When it does come up, Liberals will say two things: They’re ready to convene an independent panel to review it, and even though the disclosure bill died, they’ve been posting donations publicly since January, unlike the other parties.
Who cares about any of this, and how much?
It will take an election to find out.
