Nothing wrong with banning corporate and union donations

I don’t understand the concern that Jim Watson or anyone else has about a proposed ban on municipal (and provincial) election campaign donations (Cullen, Watson conflict over ban, Lee Greenberg, Ottawa Citizen, September 14, 2009). The article indicates that business owners have already found a way around corporate donations by making individual donations instead. In Ottawa I have also noted that other company executives and senior managers also make substantial campaign donations.

This makes it a little more difficult to track down links between companies and donors, but it can be done; Google is pretty helpful! I recall that Ottawa City Council passed a motion this year requiring candidates to provide a list of their campaign donors within 4 weeks of the election date. Presumably, they will be required to update this list at the end of the campaign as well, so that citizens can vote with full knowledge of candidates’ campaign donations? I hope I have this right?

In the article Robert MacDermid notes “…The 2003 Liberal campaign platform dedicates an entire section to ‘reducing the influence of money in politics’” MacDermid also says “…the McGuinty Liberals have become dependent on corporate donations and are unlikely to ban them in Ottawa and elsewhere. 'They would look incredibly hypocritical if they banned it at the municipal level and didn’t ban it themselves’…”

The only immediate solution is for City council to take steps itself as Toronto City Council has already done.