Election Act Amendments Introduced
Prince George, B.C.- In the wake of controversy over pay for access, and the launching of an RCMP investigation into allegations surrounding campaign donations, Premier Christy Clark’s team has introduced legislation to reform the electoral financing legislation and have regular reviews of that system.
Amendments to the Election Act tabled today will introduce real-time reporting of contributions and include new rules for how fundraising events and political contributions are reported so the public can see who is donating to any political party.
Key measures include:
- Lowering the threshold for reporting political contributions from a single contributor to $100 (currently it is $250).
- Reporting contributions to major political parties, candidates and constituency associations within 14 days of their deposit, including the nature of the contribution (whether it is a donation, a ticketed event or a sponsorship).
- Fundraising functions must be posted on the political party’s website within five days of the event.
- A penalty of $10,000 for failing to publish fundraising information as required.
The amendments in this legislation will also give authority for the chief electoral officer to publish disclosure reports and other financing reports online.
Premier Clark has instructed the deputy attorney general to develop a framework for an independent panel to regularly review B.C.’s electoral financing system and make recommendations for reform to the legislature.
The independent panel would be modelled on existing bodies such as the Electoral Boundaries Commission and would provide a venue that is above partisan politics to achieve reforms that are fair, effective and accountable to citizens. Key elements would include:
- Selection to the expert panel must be unanimously approved by the legislature.
- The independent panel will make recommendations every eight years after reviewing submissions from political parties, MLAs and the public as well as reviewing reforms and procedures in other jurisdictions.
- Current proposed legislation in B.C. as well as other reforms proposed by the federal government would be included in the review.
The deputy attorney general’s work would be completed in the summer of 2017 and would form the basis of legislation to be introduced immediately afterwards. The independent panel would commence its work following the passage of legislation into law.
Comments
Anyone else see the pattern here? This BC Liberal Government only makes changes when they are forced to. Lose a Supreme Court of Canada decision, forced to increase funding to public education. Won’t listen to the NDP to take corporate and union money out of election campaigns, RCMP investigation and allegations around illegal contributions forces them to make changes.
That’s OK, come May 9th we will force them out of office!!!
Careful peeps. If you remember, Adrian Dix was doing victory laps during the last election campaign. Nobody gave the Libs a chance. Then the silent majority spoke.
NDP is also in the same boat using the credit card donation system
This election will be the dirties election I’ve ever seen . The only way I can discribe it is , obscene . Postpone would be the only honourable thing to do . There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of that left in Victoria . They have no shame .
I think postponing the election is a great idea, and the right thing to do here. Why should a political party benefit from, and spend, $12 Million dollars on an election campaign when most of that money “might” have been donated through illegal means?
The NDP, the Green Party, and the Conservative Party, should all be demanding there be a postponement of the election until after the RCMP investigation is completed.
Pospone the election!? That’s a first, must be really getting desperate. Maybe after the NDP gives back all the union donation they have taken.
Union donations come directly from the working citizens of BC, not billion dollar corporations raking in millions in profits for rich shareholders on the backs of the working citizens of BC.
Read your reply again Dumbfounded, both came from “working citizens of BC”. One through “profits” the other taken directly off their “wages”
I am not sure it would be possible to postpone the election now. Was the date not specified in legislation, and was that not done to ensure that no advantage would be gained by any party by changing the date? Irritating as the present situation may be, if we really believe that fixed election dates should be the norm, then we must accept them as they are.
For a very detailed look at BC election financing, please go to:
ht tp://www.straight.com/news/873551/martyn-brown-my-case-campaign-finance-reform-british-columbia
This is a very long article (be warned) which consists of a very detailed look at election financing from several aspects including alternatives to the current system. It was written by Martyn Brown who, you will remember, was the Chief of Staff to Gordon Campbell when he was premier, in other words, he was a Liberal Appointee and not, by any stretch of the imagination, left of centre. He is very critical of the current system and clearly believes it is an unacceptable and undemocratic way to finance political activity in the province. For those of us who are inteerested in improving political financing in BC it is well worth reading and thinking about.
Don’t know how much stock to put in our provincial fixed date election law, because at the federal level, the Harper Conservatives disregarded their own fixed date election law, passed in 2007, by calling a snap election in 2008.
Ammonra, thanks for the link to the Martyn Brown article, I will read it later on tonight.
Give us a break, you don’t actually read anything. Just skim the headlines as you normally do
Just finished reading the article, and Martyn Brown’s rather lengthy experience in the BC Liberal political trenches really shows through. Interesting that he confirms the BC Liberal Party is now more Conservative than Liberal, interesting that the BC Liberal’s campaign donation total is 3 times the size of the NDP, and that Liberal corporate donations alone out number NDP donations from all sources. Could this mean 3 times more election law violations for the Liberals compared to the NDP? Time will tell.
Martyn exposes the seedy underside of BC’s Wild West political campaign fund raising, it’s dark, it’s sleazy, its dirty, and I felt like I needed to take a shower after reading it. Not so proud of BC politics anymore!
By the way, do you think there is any chance the RCMP will raid the Liberal’s offices during the campaign to get evidence?
Do you think they are pro democracy? Anti democracy? Or neutral ? The whole country will see how they behave . They know who the small fry are . I bet more than a few will roll over . Any orchestra this big and in tune has to have a conductor . Then there is the foreign money aspect . That should entail another level of our security system . That Christy bunch are very expensive to deal with . Coming and going .
not a chance!
Now that is a great post. Remember the BCTV video of the police in Glen Clarke’s kitchen?
I was thinking just that . What goes around , comes around . Except the g.c. Thing was about a wooden deck and a gambling licence . This is about corporations turning BC into a banana republic with the help of willing sycophants by drowning out the opposition with a firehose of money . It’s not fair and it’s not free . Its not free of intervention .
What difference would it make to anything? The Raid on the legislature during the BCRail scandal had no affect on anything. Who was it, Basi and Virk that had their legal bills paid for by BC taxpayers? This govt is as crooked as they come and the citizens of BC supply their own lube.
Adriana Dix was a backboneless wonder and Hoagie Bun is a car salesman! Hope Hoagies goes by the wayside. They won’t do any better! Really, political is political and they all belong in the same boat, right there Been Human? Bwahahahah! Even Greenpeace is political now!
lets see, Clark is going to launch an investigation into her and her party’s action pertaining to political donations…yeah that is going to be unbiased.
The big donors will get around this by having their people make the donations on their behalf. (all covered up)
In all this is just bull crap still no cap and a doz ways to hide who pays, stop corp and Union donations and level the paying field. If your doing right they people will donate. With this no loss, they have taxpayer money and $12 million to play with plus, plus. laughable at best,
From the article: “A penalty of $10,000 for failing to publish fundraising information as required.”
I think all funds raised (gross – not net) during an event that isn’t published appropriately should be donated to a charity of the opposing party’s choice.
A $10,000 fine will be seen as the cost of doing business for those who lack ethics.
Meanwhile Horgan will be hosting a ‘fundraising dinner’ where people can pay up to $10k to meet with him before the event.
Oh, you must mean the NDP’s one fundraising dinner compared to the BC Liberals 10 fundraising dinners? Christy demands twice as much at $20,000 per plate, only the top 1% can afford that, which is who the BC Liberals seem to cater to anyway.
The 1% are those that run things around here.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at peeps. It’s not ok for Christy Clark, but it’s ok for John Horgan? Maybe you’re one of those people who would pay $10K to meet him. Personally I wouldn’t see him for free if he was across the street.
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/grenier-bc-polls-caution-1.4022397?cmp=rss
I have to wonder if the BC liberals own the polling companies.
I remember the 99 election or there abouts… BC reform had about 25% in the polls and Election BC ruled they could not run any candidate in the election because Bill Vander Zalm over spent in a bi election by $500. This handed the election to the BC liberals who won all but two seats that year and kicked off their dynasty.
Seems to me Elections BC is just a globalist tool and in no way are impartial as they should be… Seems that’s why they won’t touch funny contributions from the BC liberals, because they would be shown to hold a double standard.
IMO the perfect election result this time around would be the ndp down a few seats and tied with the BC liberals with the greens holding the balance of power and Mr Weiver as premier with Mr Eby as deputy premier. A minority government with little mandate other than an opportunity to clean up the short comings in our democratic process setting up future elections with a genuine split on the left.
The RCMP investigation won’t amount to anything. I thought you voted Mike into the B.C. legislature back in 2013 so he could use his training to root out the evidence required to send certain people to jail for their roles in the railgate scandal. I think he has had enough time to do this but maybe the most important part of his training has taken precedence – keep your mouth shut and follow orders. Who is giving the orders in B.C. right now? Premier Christy Clark’s team?
And isn’t ” Premier Christy Clark’s team” made up of former Harper and Prentice staffers? Why should Federal and Albertan conservatives run B.C. from behind the curtain? Oh because the B.C. voters let them. No wonder Christy is having such a hard time containing her laughter behind her ____ ______ grin! lol
Comments for this article are closed.