Keep Big, Secretive Money Out of Local Elections

I hope that you will write your MLA and tell them you care about local democracy. Because today the Minister of Municipal Affairs tabled Bill that will allow for more money and more secretive money to be part of our local elections.

Today, Bill 29 was introduced. It sets out to make changes to the Local Authorities Election Act. You can read the government news release here. The release promises to “level the playing field” for local elections. But, in reality, Bill 29 will disadvantage candidates who refuse to take large, secretive donations. It will give candidates without personal wealth a HUGE disadvantage. And if I run again, it will give me an even larger incumbent advantage than I already have. This is all very bad news for local democracy.

Four big parts of the government’s approach to local elections that I find profoundly disturbing:

1) Advantaging wealthy candidates. Under current rules, candidates can only contribute up to $4000 to their own campaign. This is set to be changed to $10,000. To put that into context: most successful municipal campaigns in Grande Prairie cost less than $10,000 to conduct (my campaign spent a little under $6,000). So this is a HUGE amount of money in our local elections. Candidates who have enough personal wealth to kick in thousands of dollars will have a tremendous advantage over candidates who do not. That ain’t right.

2) Allowing donors to shovel virtually unlimited money into campaigns. Under current rules, a donor can only give $4,000 towards a local election. They can give a lot of money to one candidate, or a little money to a lot of candidates. But the sum total of their donations cannot be more than $4,000. This limit is set to be changed to $5,000 per candidate, and they can still support as many candidates as they wish. Donors will be able to spend A LOT of money in an election. This will potentially give wealthy people who can donate a lot of money a bigger voice than those without lots of money. That ain’t right.

3) Removing restrictions on “political advertising.” There are currently restrictions and limitations on “political advertising:” advertising from third party groups that “promotes or opposes the election of a candidate.” The very mention of political advertising is set to be deleted from Legislation. This will allow groups such as unions or large corporations to spend big money influencing elections. Groups that are well financed can get a much bigger voice than groups which are not. That ain’t right.

4) Permitting secrecy. Not only is the government poised to give wealthy candidates and well financed donors a bigger role in elections. It is also proud of keeping the role of donors secretive. Candidates will have no obligation to make financial disclosures before election day. So voters have no right to see if the people they are voting for are using large amounts of secretive money. That ain’t right.

To be clear: these changes don’t worry me on a personal level. If I run for re-election: as an engaged incumbent, I don’t need to spend nearly as much money as new candidates. And if I do need to raise some more money: I’ve got lots of professional and volunteer experience in fundraising- I can do that. These changes will make my job of campaigning easier. And that should be profoundly disturbing to residents.

We should be making it easier, not harder, for a brand new candidate without personal wealth or fundraising experience to run. We should be working to minimize, not increase, incumbent advantage.

All that being said, I do want to recognize one good change being made: under current rules, if a candidate has a campaign surplus, they need to hand it over to the municipality to be held in trust. They can then access it during the next election, giving them an advantage over new candidates. Bill 29 will only allow candidates to carry up to $1000 into the next election. And that is a very good change.

As I said at the beginning: I hope you will make some noise. Let our local MLAs know that you think democracy is important. Don’t let them introduce bigger and more secretive money into our elections without hearing about it.

And another ask: make this a campaign issue in 2021. Ask candidates (including myself if I run) to put a cap on the size of donations they will accept. Ask them to voluntarily disclose their campaign finances prior to election day. And if candidates won’t do this: consider that seriously as you head into the ballot box. Let’s not reward those candidates who accept big, secretive money.