Ban Big Money laws a good first step
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2017
Victoria — After 18 months of calling for campaign finance laws, B.C.’s largest citizen engagement group, Dogwood, is optimistic about the B.C. government’s recent tabling of legislation that bans corporate, union and out-of-province donations to political parties in B.C.
Dogwood has been calling for campaign financing legislation since April 2016.
“This win belongs to British Columbians who have been campaigning to ban Big Money for years,” explains Lisa Sammartino, Dogwood’s democracy campaigner.
But the legislation is not without red flags. Sammartino notes that while the currently proposed legislation allows for individual donations up to $1,200, polling commissioned by Insights West and Dogwood indicates most British Columbians want the cap on individual donations to be under $1,000 — on average $709.
“While we are encouraged by the steps taken today, we know much work still needs to done to ensure decision-making power is in the hands of the people who work and live in this province,” added Sammartino.
Also notably missing from the drafted legislation are further restrictions on anonymous donations, as well as no inclusion of municipal election campaigns, something that 99 per cent of people surveyed by Dogwood said they wanted to see included in the new laws.
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More information:
Dogwood is B.C.’s largest non-partisan citizens group, uniting more than 260,000 supporters to take back power over our environment and democracy. Up-to-date analysis can be found at www.dogwoodbc.ca/news.
Polling by Insights West from April 2016 can be found here. Dogwood’s research on the “Gold Standard” of Ban Big Money laws is available here.
Contact:
Lisa Sammartino
Dogwood
778-871-4334
lisa@dogwoodbc.ca
Good to see action on this!
How is it , that we can no longer support govt. with donation, yet we could still donate to dogwood? Am i missing some part of this puzzle?
Under these laws, you can donate up to $1,200 to a political party.
Excellent work, people! This is a huge step in the right direction. After this is done, we can work on the next steps — municipal election, anonymous donors, multiple donations directed by the same person through different other people. This, though, is a great first step — thank you BC NDP voters!
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We need more money for the poor Canadians of this country that are unable to work and need to do cut backs on supporting new people to this country we are born Canadians and deserve to be helped by our country. Thank you
I still say the donation cap for individuals should be affordable for all and the deduction should be double the contribution. This would promote interest in the political system and would result in more people contributing and taking part in politics. In other words, it would result in a more informed electorate.
Dogwood isn’t a political party, Judy. We need to donate to people power groups in order to keep them watching the political parties, notify us what’s happening and to take action with our help to protest if necessary…