I Support a Ban on Corporate Donations in Politics

by John Laforet
posted on November 29th, 2009 at 16:38:32 pm

Corporations aren’t people. They don’t have the same rights. They represent a single interest – the financial well being of their shareholders. Representing the interests of shareholders isn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself. I do completely understand how capitalism works, but at the same time – corporate interests should not be able to buy their way into the political system.

I am glad Toronto City Council is going to consider a ban on corporate donations for the 2010 election and beyond. This won’t end the flow of corporate money into campaigns, as if one looks at the campaign returns of both David Miller and Karen Stintz as examples – you will find that these two ‘no corporate, no union donation’ types both took money from the CEOs of corporations with clear financial interests at the City level.

Obviously nothing can be done to stop CEOs from donating to campaigns, and I’m not necessarily saying a law should, but perhaps the lobbyist registry would be improved by adding a question ‘did any principle related to this project donate to the official being lobbied’ in addition to adding an ‘outcome’ section that shows whether the corporate entity lobbying got what they wanted out of government.

It wouldn’t be fair to say  that those who take money from corporations are corrupt, or that those who donate are either – but the point is it builds a connection between the candidate and business interest that will factor into decision making – especially if the issue isn’t a live local issue and constituents aren’t expressing a strong position on the matter.

I honestly have less of a problem with union donations as unions represent people and their interests are clear and often debated in public anyways. They are being grouped into the ban, as they were in the federal ban on corporate and union donations brought in my Stephen Harper. Whether unions can donate isn’t a big deal for me, but I understand to a degree the desire to link them to corporate donations, even if it is only to make the whole thing ideologically neutral.

I hope that when City Council takes this up and that Councillors vote in the best interest of democracy, and not self interest. That being said, I don’t hold out hope that this is how this vote will be decided as many times these folks have voted out of self interest as it relates to election related matters where frankly they shouldn’t even be making the decision.