THUNDER BAY — New Democrat MPP Lise Vaugeois says the government’s proposed changes to the Election Act are good for the governing Tories but bad for democracy.
The government, for its part, says the changes would “strengthen and increase public trust in the province’s electoral system.”
Among the reforms proposed this week are the elimination of fixed election dates and a raising of the limit for donations to political parties.
Getting rid of fixed election dates is “not good for voters,” the member for Thunder Bay-Superior North said Thursday in an interview from Queen’s Park.
“It makes it an entirely partisan decision as to when an election is called.”
Vaugeois said under the current system, passed into law 20 years ago when the Liberals were in power, “everyone can prepare for” the next election.
Leaving it entirely to the premier to decide when to drop the writs would mean only the governing party would know when to get ready for a new campaign, she said.
“So I don’t see that this serves the interests of the people whatsoever.”
She characterized raising the limit on how much a person can donate in a year to $5,000 from $3,400 as a money grab by a governing party that has been embroiled in corruption, citing scandals in the Skills Development Fund and the Toronto-area Greenbelt as examples.
The Trillium reported earlier in October that clients of a lobbying firm owned by the premier’s campaign manager have received more than $100 million from the Skills Development Fund.
In 2023, a scandal erupted over irregularities in the government’s removal of land from the Greenbelt; the municipal affairs minister resigned.
As well, Vaugeois said, the timing for increases in party donation limits is awkward.
“We’re in an affordability crisis. This is the last thing the government should be putting its energy into.”
The government has proposed scrapping fixed election dates for a return to having elections called by the Lieutenant Governor on the advice of the premier, as was the case before the 2005 Election Statute Law Amendment Act.
A government news release on Monday said the proposed $5,000 donation limit “is consistent with” standards in other provinces.
The slate of proposed amendments to the Election Act includes making the per-vote subsidy for political parties a permanent feature so that parties would continue to receive a small amount — presently 63.6 cents — quarterly for every vote received in the preceding general election.
That’s “the one positive thing” in the list of proposed amendments, Vaugeois said.
Ryan Campbell, a board member of the non-profit Fair Vote Canada, agreed.
Funding based on popular support “really reinforces the idea of voter equality, and it gives parties a reason to care about voters in places that aren’t strongholds of theirs,” he said from Vancouver.
“So at least there’s some way it matters how well Liberals do in rural Ontario and how well Conservatives do in downtown Toronto. So I think that’s a very positive thing, that they’re reinforcing that.”
But Campbell said raising the donation limit is “a pretty negative thing.”
“There’s a very small number of people that can afford to give thousands of dollars to a political party, and so you’re really giving extra political influence to a small number of people,” he said.
“And our organization is all about voter equality.”
