Oh, and by the way … I am still waiting for a reply from Kevin Krueger on this

Based in Victoria, Tom Fletcher is the legislative reporter, and columnist, for newspapers published across the province by Black Press.

Yesterday (May 2, 2012) he wrote a story, “BC Liberals try election gag law again”, which I posted on my Facebook page.  The story, which follows, was posted by me without comment as information for others:

Should donations to BC's political parties, from
unions and corporations, be banned?   YES!

The B.C. government is attempting to restore limits on third-party election spending that were struck down by a judge before the 2009 vote.

Attorney General Shirley Bond has introduced amendments that would put limits on spending by unions, business groups and other non-party advertisers in the 40 days before the official start of an election campaign. A previous 60-day limit was challenged by seven public sector unions, led by the B.C. Teachers' Federation, and rejected by a B.C. Supreme Court judge as an unjustified restriction on freedom of speech.

Premier Christy Clark said some spending limit on the pre-campaign period is justified, since the province went to scheduled elections in 2005. Current rules restrict party and non-party spending during a formal 28-day election campaign, but contain no limits on spending before that period.

The government intends to submit the proposed 40-day restriction to the B.C. Supreme Court before it takes effect. If a judge approves, the new restrictions would apply for the election set for May of 2013.

NDP justice critic Leonard Krog said the latest effort will likely be challenged again and rejected again. If the B.C. Liberals want to reform election spending, they should ban corporate and union donations to political parties as the NDP and B.C. Conservative parties have advocated, Krog said.

In 2008, the B.C. Liberal government passed amendments to the B.C. Elections Act limiting spending by non-party advocacy groups to no more than $150,000 in the 60 days before the official 28-day election campaign. Registered political parties were restricted to spending $2.2 million during that time.

Interestingly a comment was posted on my Facebook page, regarding this story, by the BC Liberal MLA for Kamloops South, Kevin Krueger; he said:

Do you think that the unions who own the NDP should be free to advertise as much as they'd like in elections, Al?

The BCTF, for example, which is the only union I know that deliberately frightens its members time and again, extracts over $42 million per year from them in union dues. I am told they have 60 full-time political organizers on staff.

You think they should have free rein, no matter what the teachers think?

Remember, the genius Vander Zalm pushed them into the clutches of this weird organization.

Now again remember I posted this story, without comment, just as an interest piece; however I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll make a quick reply to him', and so I said:

Chris Delaney just can’t give up on his fight with the BC Conservatives

Stephen Hui is the Web and Technology editor at the Georgia Straight.  Earlier today he posted an article, “Why vote for the B.C. Conservatives in Chilliwack-Hope by-election?”, from Chilliwack Hope BC Conservative Party by-election candidate John Martin, which I made note of on my Facebook page. 

Chris Delaney (L) and political commentator Bill Tieleman (R)

Many of you are aware of Chris Delaney, former leader of the BC Conservative Party.  He is however likely better known as co-leader (along with former Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm) of the Fight HST movement to kill the HST in BC.

Chris quit the party on September 28^th, 2010 saying in part;

I am announcing my resignation today from the BC Conservative Party effective immediately.  The Fight HST campaign has brought out the best in people, but also the worst. While I have spent this past year working to get rid of the HST, the BC Conservative Party has spent its time trying to find ways to keep it.

For reasons I could never understand, and despite the BC Conservative Party having a clear position against the HST, he left as leader.  He then went on to become a member, and spokesperson, of BC First (he has since left the province and moved to Florida to work for EA Sports Tiburon - EA's studio in Orlando).

Sorry for any meandering, however I wanted to be clear Chris Delaney was opposed to the HST, and left the BC Conservative Party because he believed they were changing their position on it.   

This was NOT true.

In fact – he still believes the party has somehow cozied up to the idea that the HST is a good idea – despite the fact that time and time again the BC Conservatives have released statements, and made comments to the media, to the contrary.

Chris Delaney just can’t give up on his fight with the BC Conservatives, and I don’t understand why, as the following exchange he and I had earlier on Facebook shows:

MORE join the call for electoral reform

Don't you just love it when a great idea begins to take root and grow??

For many many years some workers have said their union dues should not be going to help finance election campaigns for parties they don't believe in ... others have said that businesses and corporation should not be making campaign donations either.

I believe they are right on both counts.

So does John Cummins and the BC Conservative Party who earlier in the year indicated that a BC Conservative government will enact legislation banning donations from unions and business to political parties.

I'm bringing this up today because, like I say, a good idea will take root and grow.  In recent weeks Integrity BC has begun a campaign "Who Really Runs BC"

Their initial media release on this campaign stated:

“X” doesn’t mark the spot however --- so why such a bad turn-out?

This morning on their Facebook page, Integrity BC posted the following comment:

In 2010, both Calgary and Toronto had voter turnout of over 50 per cent in their municipal elections.   We took a look at some of the turnouts in Saturday's local elections: Abbotsford (39.24%), Esquimalt (18%), Fernie (41.5%), Kamloops (29.76%), Nanaimo (27.17%), Prince George (28.5%), Saanich (25.35%), Tumbler Ridge (30.17%), Vancouver (34.57%), Victoria (26.35%) and West Vancouver (24.53%).   These turnouts point to a serious malaise and disengagement in BC's democratic system.

GUESS WHAT?  That brief short note doesn’t even come close to showing how pathetic and abysmal the voting habits of British Columbian’s are becoming.

The WORST voter turn-out?   Esquimalt with UNDER 18% (17.99%) of voters turning out … of 12,872 eligible voters, only a pitiful 2,300 could be bothered to make it to the polling station to cast a ballot.  Running a close second was Port Coquitlam with a turn-out of just over 18%

Jim Pattison is a multimillionaire -- he obviously likes to make money -- so why the ban??

We live in a free society where free enterprise provides us with the businesses we can shop at, for the goods and services we require.   That said, we are also free to determine where we will shop, and spend our hard earned dollars.

I say this because Integrity BC is currently running a campaign called “Who Really Runs BC”.

The purpose of the campaign is to have the BC government, "... amend the province's electoral finance laws to ban donations by both big business and big unions to BC's political parties, to cap annual individual donations and to appoint a Citizens' Assembly to make binding recommendations on a host of additional reforms."

As they say on their website, “each of these steps will help restore accountability, transparency and integrity to BC politics, because by bringing the influence of big money to an end we can change BC politics – for the better."

Integrity BC is running advertising promoting the "Who Really Runs BC?” campaign, however the Jim Pattison sign company, one of the largest in the world, refuses to run it.  That campaign again is calling for a ban of donations by BOTH unions and business to political parties.

The Jim Pattison Group has $7.2 billion in sales, and employs 33,000 people in 455 locations.  Jim Pattison is a multimillionaire -- he obviously likes to make money -- so why the ban??