BC Liberals greed for power

[Donald G]

Can you imagine anyone wanting political power ??

Apparently, according to this String Caption, the NDP think that that is a terrible thing.

Have no ambition to govern, be against everything and do nothing is the new NDP creed for 2016.

[Donald G]

previous posters quote removed.

People have to learn to view the NDP like the half time entertainment at a Football Game. They try to keep the people voters amused while the old government leaves the field and the new government comes up and takes over the game.

I don't view them as "ranting in their underpants" (during the half time show) though. They do the best that they can do for their knowledge and experience.

[flamingfingers]

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Politics & money: How to fix B.C.’s corrupt political fundraising system
The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Apr. 11, 2016 6:30PM EDT
Last updated Monday, Apr. 11, 2016 7:22PM EDT
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Until last week, politicians in British Columbia could console themselves that theirs was not the only large province to be clinging to a discredited, undemocratic practice. But now that Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has said her government will table a bill this spring banning corporate and union donations to political parties, B.C. is all on its own.

B.C. law allows corporations, unions and individuals to make unlimited donations to political parties. Every donation must be recorded, and any over $250 must have the donor’s name attached to it. The disclosures are made public, but the disclosures are not particularly useful.

All donations from 2015 were put online at the Elections BC website at the start of April. That means British Columbians are only finding out now, for instance, that Encana, the Alberta-based oil and natural gas company, gave the party $50,000 on Dec. 22, and a grand total of $92,925 for the year.

Whether these or any of the other disclosed corporate donations were linked to the kind of private, high-cost, access-for-cash dinners that Liberal Premier Christy Clark routinely attends with wealthy donors is not made clear.

What the disclosures do accomplish is to leave voters with the impression the Liberals are in the pocket of corporations and wealthy donors. The ruling party has raised $10.4-million in the past two years from corporate donors, and another $6.8-million from individuals who gave an average of $1,362 each.

In 2015 alone, the party took in $5.3-million from corporations and $3.4-million in individual donations of more than $250. A few individual donors gave as much as $25,000, $35,000 and even $60,000. But the party received a relatively small sum in individual donations of less than $250 – $535,552, to be exact. And unions gave it a mere $24,075.

Contrast this to the opposition NDP. It took in $3.1-million in donations in 2015. A total of $2.5-million came in individual donations, including $1.4-million in donations of less than $250. Trade unions donated $375,000, while corporations donated $148,000.

This is a deep divide. On the one hand, B.C. has a governing party beholden to corporate interests. On the other, there is an opposition party that relies on small donations from individuals and union support.

This is very much like Alberta was prior to last year. For more than 40 years, the Progressive Conservative Party ruled the province with the help of donations from the corporate world. That came to a crashing halt when the NDP was elected in 2015. One of the first orders of business for the new government was to end corporate and union donations, as Ottawa had done a decade earlier.

One day, a B.C. government will inevitably do the same. No party governs forever. The NDP says it would ban union and corporate donations, which with any luck will be in its platform for the election in May of next year.

But Premier Christy Clark could do the right thing now, as Premier Wynne has promised to do in Ontario. She should, because her party’s arguments for refusing to reform the system are demonstrably wrong.

Ms. Clark insists that disclosure is an adequate way of ensuring nothing untoward is going on. On the contrary, all disclosure proves is that the governing party is overwhelmingly reliant on the financial support of the business sector.

Government House Leader Mike de Jong insists that B.C. will not ban corporate donations because he says it would mean replacing the lost income with public subsidies. But the federal parties saw their per-vote subsidies phased out last year, and they have had no trouble raising money from individual donors. It is a falsehood for Mr. de Jong to claim this can’t be done in B.C.

Voters in B.C. are being denied these basic reforms by Ms. Clark and her Liberal Party. Their democratic right to vote knowing that their ballot holds more influence than a dollar bill does is being subverted by brazen political self-interest. But now Ms. Clark has run out of viable justifications for continuing this travesty, and is operating on greed alone.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/ ... e29590585/

[maryjane48]

by my math the christy libs rake in way more cash from corps than the ndp gets from unions . so realy the corrupt ones are the bc libs .

[MAPearce]

And when the NPD rule , it's the same thing .. Only backwards..

Let me spell this out for you ..

it dont matter who in power they will all take munny from you and keep it f or them only....

[maryjane48]

yes but some worse than others . let me spell it out for you . the bc libs mzke the bc ndp lok like amatures when it comes to corruption

[MAPearce]

let me spell it out for you

I thought you said that you'd spell that out for me ??

OY VEY !

[erinmore3775]

Unfortunately both the BC Lberals and the BC NDP are guilty of receiving donations from corporation who hope that the money will influence decisions or policy. The most blatant have been those related to the resource industries and paid over the past 10 years.

These included proponents who wanted to be included as independent power producers.

"For the 10 successful proponents, their donations more than doubled from $112,801 (January 2005 to June 2008) to $229,471.After the deals were done, they settled back again. Seven donated $112,345 to the Liberals and five gave $16,225 to the NDP (2010 to 2014).

"In 2008, the Mining Association of B.C. received a $295,188 grant from the Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT) to make the business case for the Northwest Transmission Line.NDIT's Highway 37 Power Line Coalition has 22 private sector partners.Excluding the six companies in Bennett's deferral program, independent power producers and those identified by B.C. Hydro as "potential future mines" for the transmission line, three trade associations and ten of the companies donated $962,220 to the Liberals and $10,320 to the NDP. 

"The $404 million transmission line overshot its budget by more than $300 million, with a final price tag of $716 million. 

"There are the nine "potential future mines" that B.C. Hydro hopes will one day connect to the line. Excluding donations from Imperial Metals and Teck, who have interests in three of the mines, the most generous companies were Goldcorp at $795,700, the Lundin Group of Companies ($112,145) and Copper Fox Metals ($93,130). One of the founding directors of Copper Fox Metals is Hector MacKay-Dunn, who co-chaired the B.C. Liberal's 2009 election preparation efforts. MacKay-Dunn is affectionately known in some party circles as Hector the Collector for his prowess at political fundraising.

"The nine companies behind the potential mines have donated $1 million to the Liberals and $18,050 to the NDP.

"And at the same time the government was imposing hydro rate increases on schools and hospitals in 2014, Bennett announced a $100 million B.C. Hydro initiative for pulp and paper producers to "support investments in more energy efficient equipment.

"The forest industry has donated more than $4.2 million to the Liberals and $294,905 to the NDP. Tidy haul. Add it all up: more than $9.8 million in donations from interested parties to the Liberals and $417,185 to the NDP, not including their 2015 donations."

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dermodtravis/bc-liberals-bc-hydro_b_9243742.html

It is time that the current government took a leadership role and follwed Alberta that just eliminated all union and corporate donations to provincial political parties. I would also like to see hard and specific limits set on what each party and candidate can spend during an election. I would like to see regulations similar to those currently in effect in Saskatchewan be put in place in BC.

http://www.elections.sk.ca/candidates-political-parties/electoral-finance/expenditures-and-election-expense-limits/expense-limits-2016/

While the Liberals certainly have accepted more money from corporations, the NDP have accepted more union money. However, I believe that both parties have been influenced in policy and action by these donations. This type of corruption must stop. It is disrespectful to the voters and tarnishes democracy.

[Smurf]

erinmore3775 you say it tarnishes democracy, I believe it is more like makes a total joke of it. There is nothing democratic about some individual or group buying favours. This should stop immediately.