Murky World of Campaign Rebates to Floor Crossers and Seat Deserters
Canada's system of publicly funding the campaigns of what are called political parties and their candidates, instead of funding a democratic electoral process, is becoming murkier and murkier as campaign rebates are given to floor crossers and seat deserters. Two Liberals who have deserted their seats for greener pastures, Scarborough Southwest MP Bill Blair and University--Rosedale MP Chrystia Freeland, are both in the process of receiving a refund from public coffers of a minimum of sixty per cent of their election campaign expenses incurred during the 45th general election. Given that they have chosen not to serve out their terms, one would expect that they should return the money to the public purse or at the very least prorate it in some way. But no, they consider it their due. So too for the floor-crossers who campaigned for an entirely different party and now say they are exercising their right of free choice to join the Liberals.
These campaign expense refunds are typically either turned over to the candidate's riding association, kick-starting the accumulation of funds for the next election, or to the party's national office, replenishing their government-funded election and inter-election war chests. Why riding associations should get such funds for the next election is a question that deserves asking. Riding associations are no longer even mandated or entrusted or permitted to select candidates in an election, let alone candidates who can be trusted to serve their four-year stint before moving on for whatever reason.
A similar question applies to MPs who ran as Conservatives or, in the case of Lori Idlout, the NDP, and obtained reimbursements earmarked for the riding associations and/or the national headquarters of the Conservative Party or the NDP. Come the next election, they will have to rely on the Liberal riding associations to use the funds they were reimbursed for the second-place Liberal candidate's expenses. Keep in mind that the 60 per cent reimbursement is paid out in installments linked to campaign finance returns. Does this mean that the Conservative and NDP candidates who have now become Liberals should be called on to hand over their reimbursement to the Liberal riding association they now claim they belong to -- the same riding associations which exist in name only and were not even consulted about their new MP?
All of this is so murky that nobody even bothers to think it is worth mentioning. This is to say nothing about the Canadians who have given political contributions to a candidate with the expectation that if they won, they would sit in the House of Commons as a Conservative or New Democrat.
If
public funds were used to fund a democratic political process
instead
of political parties and candidates all this murkiness -- both
financial and moral -- could be dispensed with. The cartel
parties use
public funds in a murky unscrupulous way and, in many cases, so
do the
candidates of the cartel parties. And to think that all this
financial
and moral murkiness is carried out in the name that it enhances
the
democracy! It becomes increasingly obvious that it is a
democratic
electoral process which should receive public funds, not
candidates and
not political parties.
Most laughable are the "reasons" given by the cartel parties
when they
pass legislation increasing the amount of public funds they
receive,
claiming that this guarantees "free and fair" elections and an
"equal
playing field" because presumably campaigning is not a matter of
possession of or access
to personal wealth!
Funding a democratic political process, not the parties, would begin with a process which enables constituents to select candidates on a non-partisan basis from amongst their peers who stand for an agenda they themselves determine. Political parties could also present their candidates but would not receive state funds for campaigning, paying marketing firms to manipulate information, spread disinformation and carry out all kinds of dirty deeds. State funds would be used to guarantee an informed vote by providing the body politic with access to information they need to deliberate on the problems facing the country, in terms of both national and foreign policy, and the solutions under consideration.
This needs to be combined with other democratic measures, such as fixed election dates which Prime Ministers cannot self-servingly manipulate and, between elections, permanent non-partisan bodies in every riding through which constituents and people in the ridings can engage with those who claim to be their representatives and make them accountable to them, not to cartel parties over which they exercise no control.
The need is to Fund a Democratic Electoral Process, Not Political Parties.
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 7 - March 13, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560075.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca