Premier Christy's looonnngg fingers

[flamingfingers]

It's just never enough for her - despite a $200,000 salary that we pay her, the perks and benefits she receives as the premier footed by us, she needs more: A 'top-up' from her party by hosting $20,000 private parties; the 'top-up' being $50,000 a year - more than some of us make by actually working full time:

Christy Clark’s salary being topped up by donations to BC Liberal Party
GARY MASON
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Apr. 27, 2016 6:00AM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Apr. 27, 2016 10:54AM EDT
155 Comments

Premier Christy Clark is paid tens of thousands of dollars each year by the BC Liberal Party – an income that is drawn from coffers infused by donor contributions and is in addition to the nearly $200,000 she earns annually as the head of government.

The Globe and Mail has learned that Ms. Clark is given between $30,000 and $50,000 a year from the BC Liberal Party for work she does for it throughout the year, including attending fundraising events. A spokesman with the Liberals of Ontario said that Premier Kathleen Wynne does not get a salary from the party. The BC NDP Party does not pay its leader anything, either. A spokesman for NDP Leader John Horgan said he has been reimbursed for a “couple of suits” during his time in the job.

The revelation about Ms. Clark’s extra payments follows Globe reports that she has been appearing at intimate donor get-togethers at which well-heeled patrons pay large amounts of cash for a chance to get rare, private face time with the most powerful politician in the province.

The Globe has also learned that Ms. Clark’s lawyer is being paid with funds from the Liberal caucus – in other words, taxpayer dollars. It is the same taxpayer-funded revenue source that Ms. Clark’s office raided in 2013 to help underwrite the ethnic outreach strategy that became a provincewide scandal.

Mr. Eby says it is unconscionable that the Premier is getting taxpayers to pay for her lawyers regarding a complaint that stems from her role at Liberal party fundraising events.

“It’s a very serious issue that public funds are being used to defend the Liberals’ fundraising methods in a bid to allow them to continue to raise funds in the way they see fit,” Mr. Eby told The Globe. “That is definitely not what the money is intended for.”

Ms. Clark has come under fire for her cash-for-access events, ones that helped the party raise a record $10-million in 2015. The party said it intends on holding many more over the next 14 months in the lead up to the 2017 election.

The same type of functions caused a political storm in Ontario recently too. As a result, Ms. Wynne immediately banned them and announced that the province will move to prohibit all corporate and union donations in the future.

Ms. Clark, meantime, has said she will continue to hold private fundraisers and will not ban corporate and union donations. British Columbia has arguably the most lax campaign finance laws in the country. The Liberals refuse to disclose the identity of those attending the private meetings with the Premier or how much they are paying for that access. The Globe determined independently what the price tag was for some fundraising dinners with the Premier.

Read the rest and the comments here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/bri ... e29767196/

[dieseluphammerdown]

Definitely not acceptable as are many of questionable things Christie has done.

What though have the NDP party in BC done to try and get her and the Liberals out of power ?
What has the NDP changed about themselves to warrant another chance at governing ?
Why would BCers give the NDP the power of governing when they haven't changed their stripes.
Why would BCers want an NDP party in power that continues to oppose big projects like site C costing the BC economy ?
As I've stated before BC does not have a viable legitimate option at this point to challenge the Liberals.

Since the last election the NDP could have re grouped and put a solid platform into position to challenge the Liberals in the next election , but instead they have and continue to flounder around like a fish out of water.

[Even Steven]

If her party wants to pay her a stipend so be it. It's their money.

[flamingfingers]

If her party wants to pay her a stipend so be it. It's their money.

It is the SOURCE of the money that is under a cloud - corporations (of unknown origin), the wealthy with personal agendas gives the unmistakable perception of "Pay to Play" and preferential treatment of contracts and projects to the largest donors - and Christy benefits PERSONALY from that by her '$50,000 'top up' from these donations!!

Also:
Simple Definition of stipend
: a usually small amount of money that is paid regularly to someone

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stipend

I would HARDLY call $50,000 a 'small amount of money'!!!

[Even Steven]

It is the SOURCE of the money

People and corporations are free to donate money to the party of their choosing as long as it's transparent. Party is free to do with that money whatever they want. They choose to pay a stipend to their leader. Everything is 100% legit and legal.

BTW, why unknown origin? All donations are publicly declared.

I would HARDLY call $50,000 a 'small amount of money'!!!

It's not huge.

[maryjane48]

lets see your list of names that attended the dinners .

[maryjane48]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/bri ... e29780527/

this article says the donators get a tax reciept so its really us paying the extra 255 thousand

[flamingfingers]

It doesn’t matter if you declare it on the MLA disclosures that 99 % of voters in BC don’t even know exist. It’s still wrong. A premier, or any MLA for that matter of any party, should not be taking a salary from party coffers,based on the donations that party receives.I have to ask if any other MLA’s are receiving similar top-ups for party work!

It’s not just a perceived conflict of interest, it is a real one that every public official elected to office should strive to avoid at all costs.It’s about a not so little thing called integrity. How can voters have faith of impartiality and public trust,when the premier who is getting paid for partisan political party events with funds coming from corporate and other donations to her party? While she is making executive decisions for the future of BC?
Is it just me that finds this so damn appalling? This is a complete breach of public trust!

As Kashif points out so very well in his bang on tweet, BC went nuts over a home deck reno on Glen Clark – the deck that collapsed a premier. He resigned when police confirmed he was the subject of an investigation.

Yet skimming some money off corporate party donations? Misleading RCMP? Removing the Offence Act for document destruction? Deleting Emails requested under an FOI?

Just another day in BC politics these days…

“Honesty, integrity and accountability, the values which should be the hallmark of this government, have instead been thrown under the bus by an arrogant majority, casualties in a misguided campaign to shield from accountability those who abuse this house.”
Louise Slaughter

https://lailayuile.com/2016/04/27/50-sh ... to-govern/

[flamingfingers]

From mj's link posted above:

Increasingly, the BC Liberals are an ethical outlier when it comes to this sort of stuff. The majority of provinces have banned or are in the process of banning union and corporate donations. Ontario was the latest, a move incited by outrage over the same type of private fundraisers that Ms. Clark is headlining. In Ontario, Premier Kathleen Wynne said she wouldn’t attend them any more and vowed to take big money out of politics.

Not B.C.

A check by The Globe of other provincial leaders in the country shows again that what the BC Liberals are doing is highly irregular. Premier Brad Wall in Saskatchewan is the only other provincial leader who gets an allowance from his party over and above his government salary. The amount he receives – $37,000 – is disclosed. That is not the case in British Columbia. The reason there are only two leaders who get this kind of political top-up is because it looks horrible.

When it was discovered that Quebec Liberal leader Jean Charest was receiving a similar annual payout from his party years ago it was a scandal. The practice ended immediately.

In British Columbia, the matter was raised in Question Period on Wednesday. The Liberals mostly laughed their way through the Opposition questions. You can tell Ms. Clark and her Liberal colleagues do not take this issue seriously nor believe it will hurt them at the polls. The Premier smiled as her response to questions about her Liberal Party income morphed into a soliloquy about the economy. There didn’t appear to be a single person on the government benches taking the matter seriously.

What Ms. Clark fails to understand is that this is serious. There is a matter of grave public interest here. The Premier, the head of government, is selling access through party fundraising events. That is without dispute. And she is benefiting from the proceeds that access generates. It is a clear conflict. And yet, she and her party treat it like a big joke.

The Liberals say they have been open about the “allowance” she gets from the Liberals as it is mentioned on her disclosure statement. But she doesn’t disclose how much she gets. That has only come out as a result of The Globe and Mail’s stories. I asked the Liberal Party how much her predecessor, Gordon Campbell, received over the previous 10 years he was leader but did not get a response. The party is open only when it’s forced to be.

One other thing to consider about all this: The people whose donations fund Ms. Clark’s Liberal Party salary get a tax receipt. In other words, taxpayers are subsidizing the $50,000 income that the Premier’s party gives her on top of the $200,000 citizens are already paying her as the head of government.

I wonder how most people feel about that?

[Even Steven]

lets see your list of names that attended the dinners .

List of all donors are declared for all parties. You can access this information through FOI requests. Heck, you can even see their year end budgets too see what they spend money on.

[flamingfingers]

^^Links please??

[Even Steven]

It's the law for political parties in Canada. Never been interested enough to actually look for this information, feel free to research it yourself and fill our Freedom of Information requests.

[flamingfingers]

It's the law for political parties in Canada. Never been interested enough to actually look for this information, feel free to research it yourself and fill our Freedom of Information requests.

YOU may think it is 'law' but the ChristyLiberals flout the law 16 ways to Friday. But your last comment about 'not being interested enough' clearly shows your ignorance with regard to all things political. You are another of the ChristyLiberal Kool Aid gulpers. And they LOVE you....

[Even Steven]

But your last comment about 'not being interested enough' clearly shows your ignorance with regard to all things political.

Nope. I just don't share the same level of obsession over every single thing that Christie Clark does, says, eat, and poops that you display.

[occasional thoughts]

Ah, a first-ever call for a politician's stool test.