The astute and prolific Gary Mason writes in the Globe and Mail about political financing, the biggest opportunity he sees the Greens’ balance of power representing. He is clear and caustic about the current state of BC political financing — so if you are a certain party’s operative, maybe you want to shield yourself from this one.
Ms. Clark led arguably the most arrogant and entitled government in the country. Cronyism has thrived under hers and previous Liberal administrations. The corrosive effect it has had on B.C. politics can’t be understated and it needs to be brought to an end.
Mr. Weaver has said that banning union and corporate donations is at the top of his list of measures he would request in exchange for his backing. This is good. Big money has to be taken out of politics in British Columbia. Right now, corporations (and to a much lesser extent, unions) and the province’s wealthiest citizens, through their donations, are getting an outsized say in the outcome of elections. . .
. . . Earlier this year, a Globe and Mail investigation shed some light on the murky world of campaign donations in B.C., and revealed how lobbyists were not only donating tens of thousands of dollars to the very governing party they are lobbying, but also donating on behalf of unnamed clients, something that is illegal. The RCMP is now investigating. The Liberals, meantime, have returned more than $200,000 they since “discovered” was donated illegally.
The lobbyist industry in B.C. is a cesspool that has deep, deep roots in the Liberal party. Influence buying is not done in the backrooms in B.C., it is done in the open.
Gary Mason has written one or two very insightful — and cutting — columns before on this issue. The money heading to the BC Libs is just a couple of points short of the stuff Jane Mayer wrote about in her book ‘Dark Money’ which exposes the funnel into which American billionaires pour millions into the accounts of politicians and lobbyists. The Koch brothers are the worst, and they have many US senators and congress members in their pockets.
In one of his previous columns Mason interviewed at least one lobbyist who was very weary of the pressure the Libs put on him to hand over increasingly larger sums. If the NDP and Greens do manage to form a government and ban these kinds of donations and establish some kind of spending limit on political campaigns, my question would be, What will the Libs do with the millions they’ve already received, which obviously didn’t do them much good in this week’s election?
There outta be a contest.