A campaign to reform B.C.'s electoral finance laws is hitting mailboxes in Prince George-Valemount.
An advocacy group, IntegrityBC, has sent 10,000 postcards to homes in the riding, represented by Liberal MLA Shirley Bond, calling for a ban on corporate and union funding of political parties and a cap on personal donations.
"Certainly, we've seen some uptake in visitors to our website from Prince George so we know people are receiving them," said IntegrityBC managing director Dermod Travis.
It's the seventh riding the group has targeted and more will follow, both Liberal and NDP.
The group hopes to have a petition tabled in the legislature by April 2012
"What we are trying to do right now is what we're calling 'chatting with British Columbians,' to get British Columbians talking about the issue, recognizing the impact of this issue on our political system in B.C. and hopefully selling them on the ideas we've put forward," Travis said.
IntregrityBC is also calling for a citizen's assembly to deal with a host of additional issues that came up when it was preparing the campaign - how municipal candidates and parties are funded, whether there should be public allowances for political parties, and whether there should be rebates to candidates for their election expenses, for example.
"What we found was there was a wide consensus in British Columbia for a ban and a cap," Travis said. "Those other issues had differences of opinion that are significant and the best approach is to take that out of the hands of the people who stand to benefit from the decisions and put it into the hands of independent, non-partisan citizens who can deliberate on the pros and the cons of every aspect and come forward with binding recommendations."
Some of those steps have already been taken by the federal government. Former prime minister Jean Chretien put in a cap on donations and current prime minister Stephen Harper banned all donations from corporations and unions and reduced the cap for donations from individuals to $1,100.
Nor can corporations and unions donated to a political party in Nova Scotia, Quebec or Manitoba while there are caps in all other provinces except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
"The largest donor to the B.C. Liberal Party in 2010 was Great Pacific Capital Corporation at $208,000 and I defy anyone to find a political party in the rest of Canada that received a donation of $208,000 from any donor, whether personal or corporate," Travis said.
In an e-mail response, Bond said the government "is always open to suggestions on improving the way elections are run. At this time however, we are not contemplating changes to electoral finances."
