Candidates for public office are permitted to accept financial and in-kind contributions to their election campaigns and must report them as part of the election process. Some candidates chose not to accept any and they are fortunate to be in a position to be able to personally absorb all the costs or perhaps they incurred their costs such as signs and design work in earlier campaigns or have personal access to necessary resources and skills.
For those who choose to accept contributions, they are allowing others to support democracy by contributing. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the financial means to fund their own campaigns, nor should they have to.
Not everyone is fortunate to have a high public profile at the time of running so that voters have some idea of why they are running.
When I contribute to a campaign, I would never expect that the candidate is obligated to me in any way. When I ran for public office, I was always clear that I was not obligated in any way if I accepted a contribution.
Please be clear when candidates say they are not accepting contributions so they are not obligated, they are speaking for themselves alone and not inferring that someone else is going to be obligated. To do so would be to politicize the democratic process in order to get brownie points with voters and this does not in my opinion support democracy.
Wendy Maurer, Qualicum Beach