Letter to the Editor: "Big money political donations breed apathy"

Here is a letter to the editor I wrote to a local newspaper :

Dear Editor,

How do we get more people tuned in to provincial politics? One option: party finance reform. It is not exciting, but hear me out.

Tightening political party financing will help erode a steeping political apathy in British Columbia, first by strengthening the voters’ trust in the political process, and second, by shifting incentives of the political parties to spend less time raising money. 

British Columbia’s last 20 years of provincial elections have never surpassed a 60 per cent voter turnout; corporate and union donations are helping fuel this apathy. 

For when a voter sees large corporate and union donations pouring into political parties, trust in the political process is eroded. “Big money” denigrates the confidence of the voter who might otherwise be engaged with their representative. The political process becomes viewed as tainted and therefore turns voters off from making their vote. When people feel that their votes and their voices cannot compete with large sums of money, something is wrong. 

It is not illogical that political parties, as the governing NDP have done, continue to collect funds until the taps turn off. The incentive that lies in front of them pushes for pay-to-play events like $500-a-head-dinners. Their operations are setup around the current unlimited donation system.

However, the public must demand a more principled system. We must continue to demand legislation that sets limits on contributions to political parties and political riding associations from individuals, as well as ban donations from unions and corporations.

The public must be adamant that our representatives craft new legislation to shift incentives more towards meeting the needs of constituents rather than focusing time and energy courting those select few with the financial capacity to spend “big money.” 

A fairer system is a choice available to our province. The success of a political party should be driven by the quality of their platforms and their responsiveness to voters’ interests, not the size of their war chest. 

When money competes with voters’ interests for the attention of our lawmakers, we all lose.