Battle brews over election spending
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The B.C. Liberal government wants to restrict campaign spending by parties and third-party interest groups before the provincial election next spring.
Attorney General Wally Oppal said changes to the B.C. Elections Act don't mean a big change to direct campaigning by a party. Each party will be limited to spending $4.4 million during the 28-days leading up to the next election, which must be held May 12, 2009. That's similar to the current limit.
The big change is the establishment of a 120-day pre-election period before the official campaign begins. The government wants to limit parties to $2.2 million spent in that period, and third parties such as unions and business groups would be allowed to spend only $150,000.
NDP critic Leonard Krog said the government is trying to prevent a repeat of the 2005 election, where the B.C. Teachers' Federation spent millions over several months attacking the B.C. Liberal government's record on education. The $150,000 limit is "chump change" for any group trying to advertise province-wide through TV and newspapers, he said.
Krog said the third-party spending limit will likely be challenged in court as a violation of the constitutional right to free expression. He expects such a challenge would succeed, but in the meantime the NDP will put up a fight in the legislature.
Oppal said the changes are an effort to create a level playing field, but the latest party donation figures show a big advantage for the B.C. Liberals. In 2007, the NDP raised just over $3 million, mostly from individual donations. Only $219,000 came from unions.
The B.C. Liberals raised nearly $6 million last year, nearly three quarters of it from corporations and businesses.
The NDP has called for a ban on all corporate and union donations to political parties, as has happened at the federal level and more recently under the NDP government of Manitoba. Oppal said the B.C. Liberal government chose not to target any particular group, but chose instead to limit overall spending.
The three month pre-election limits stem from the fact that B.C. now has scheduled elections every four years, Oppal said. This allows interest groups to time their campaigns knowing they will have the maximum effect on voters.
One third-party fight that will likely be prominent in next year's election will be over private power generation. The union representing BC Hydro workers has been campaigning against the government's policy to restrict new generation facilities to private ownership, and an industry-backed group has sprung up in response.
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