“Mr. Speaker, the bill does not reform political party financing to restore public funding. As we know, the more an individual can donate, the more likely it is to create the appearance of conflicts of interest or corruption. For example, there was a case where a former prime minister authorized the opening of a new bank in Toronto specifically for the Chinese community in British Columbia. The very next day, he received 45 donations to his riding, each at the maximum amount, from individuals who were members of those communities in Toronto and British Columbia. All this corruption, or the appearance of corruption, could be eliminated by introducing public funding for political parties and limiting the amount individuals can donate.”
Statement grade
A–
The average of Signal, Relevance and Clarity.
Average 85 / 100
A score under 50 is red. Choose a measurement to see where it lost points and why; choose it again to clear.
Positioning 39%Reasoning 61%
This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Positioning · 40 wordscertainly undue influence and undue foreign influence is a concern in our elections.It is good to have a large number of grassroots Canadians participating in the democratic process, which is certainly preferable to a small number of well-to-do insiders.PositioningReasoning · 62 wordsHowever, I would caution against the idea of public funds for parties or a per-vote subsidy for parties.If individuals want to get people to vote for them, they have to go out, knock on doors and do some fundraising at the same time.I think that having a nominal amount of fundraising for candidates and for parties is a good thing.
