Update III: An “I Support Public Campaign Financing” facebook group has already popped up and I’m hearing a somewhat credible rumour that the NDP, Liberals and Bloc are or have already held a teleconference to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition government.
Anyone else heard this?
PS. On the other hand, this smells vaguely of surrender.
Or maybe its all a ploy.
For example, if you wanted to cut this subsidy, floating a rumour that you were going to kill it outright might make whatever you actually do seem reasonable
I spent a couple of hours burning up the phone lines last night but at this point it seems to have been nothing more than a rumour.
ReplyDeleteIf the four opposition parties were to pool their funds for an ad informing Canadians about the inconsistency between Harper's words during the election and his actions afterward, they could probably come up with something that would make an impression.
ReplyDeleteWill Flaherty also cut the public funded largess of the federal political tax credit, which refunds, overall, at least 50% of donations to political parties? Of course not. The Conservatives are the greatest beneficiaries of it.
ReplyDeleteOMG, it's four-dimensional chess!
ReplyDeleteThe economic prognosis is far direr than Harper ever let on.
I say we storm Parliament Hill with torches and pitchforks.
It's a great ploy to screw with the Liberals.
ReplyDeleteHalf of them are scared poopless of another election while half of them would be entirely against such a subsidy.
Since these are all rumours, the Cons are out of the picture, and the story is entirely how the opposition parties are reacting to it.
Discuss in backrooms to prepare if it's brought up as a vote of non-confidence, but I say don't make a big show until someone in the Cons comes out and officially says something either way on it.
Well boo hoo hoo.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, Reform/Alliance/CPC drew almost most of its funding from party members, $50 or $100 at a pop, whereas the Liberals relied mainly on corporate Canada for support. Jean Cretien threw a wrench in the works with his deathbed electoral reforms which cut his party off from its normal source of income (thus skewering Paul Martin) while establishing public financing as a consolation prize.
Tapping public money to finance political parties is disgraceful. When I first ran (successfully) for Parliament as a Reformer in 1993, my party was penniless, and I had to raise my $60,000 campaign budget entirely at the constituency level. My supporters set up booths at every sports day and rodeo, and when I went door knocking, I always had a membership/receipt book in hand. We pulled it off.
Under the present setup, all of my openents would have had access to the big trough in Ottawa but, I as the new kid on the block wouldn't have been elligible for a dime. I wouldn't have had a chance. Would that have been democratic?
Quit your whining Pat Martin and Gerard Kennedy, get off of your butts and do a little fund raising. If your support is solid, you'll have no problem. If not --- tough.
Typo: First line above "...most of their funding..."
ReplyDeleteQuit your whining Pat Martin and Gerard Kennedy, get off of your butts and do a little fund raising. If your support is solid, you'll have no problem. If not --- tough.
ReplyDeleteI love the tough talk from the CRAPers.