Like the Harper Conservatives, the B.C. Liberals and your Sept. 21 cartoon misrepresent the changes brought in by the NDP/Green shift in taxpayer subsidies for political parties.
We already generously subsidize political parties.
Remember how a $100 donation only costs you $25… that other $75 is a tax credit. That means the public subsidizes political parties according to how much a political party raises in donations.
With this arrangement, the more a political party brought in, the more your taxes subsidized the party – whether you voted for it or not.
That does not even consider the taxpayer subsidies based on how much a political party spent. Usually, the more a party brought in, the more they spent and the more we, the taxpayer, subsidized the party — again — whether we supported or voted for the party or not.
As under the federal Chretien Liberals, the NDP/Greens have brought in a taxpayer per-vote subsidy.
Under this system, you the taxpayer and voter can make donations to the political party of your choice, if you are fortunate enough to have the disposable income.
However, now a small portion of your taxes also subsidizes the party for which you did vote. This makes your vote even more important, because whether or not you have the income to make donations, your vote enables your party of choice to have staff and get its message out.
Put another way – instead of the political party for whom you did not vote getting the majority of our taxpayer subsidy, because they raised and spent more money, now a portion of your taxes will subsidize the party for which you actually did vote.
You decide which is most fair and best serves our democracy — and then let your MLA know.
Yvonne Zarowny
Qualicum Beach