Municipal Campaign Reform
Campaign Reform is usually spoken about in America where huge money is raised, extorted, solicited and cajoled to and from candidates and donors to political campaigns. A move in Toronto might spark reform all over Ontario but don't bet on it happening here. A major part of the reforms that Toronto is discussing is the banning of donations from Corporations and Unions. Provincial reform now limits donations from those sources to a maximum of $750 to an individual and a total of $5,000 during a campaign to all candidates, from the same donor. If banning corporate/union donations ever took place here no candidate could afford to run. In every municipal election that I have ever seen, every financial report filed six months after the election has been shown that donations from individuals have been as scarce as hen's teeth. Almost all of the candidates declaring donations revealed that the sources were local developers. In fact it was so bad, a few years back, that one particular development company donated substantial sums to incumbents and none to newcomers. It was probably just a coincidence that this particular developer had a planning application before the incumbents which needed to be voted on just before the election took place. The public only found out about it six months later when the incumbents were re-elected and the developer got his planning permission. When asked about the linkage, one incumbent muttered, "It's not illegal to take donations so I did!"
This Cobourg Council, just like every other small town entity will be dragged kicking and screaming into campaig reform, because the status quo is mighty fine for them. Nobody has ever spent the maximum amount allowed and nobody ever queries where the money has come from. After all the donations do not have to be declared until six months after the election.
In fact them only piece of meaningful election reform will never happen here because the move would be too transparent. I refer to the notion of declaring donations within 30 days of receiving them. Imagine going to the election booth knowing just who was bankrolling a candidate, an amazing piece of knowledge. Never happen!
This Cobourg Council, just like every other small town entity will be dragged kicking and screaming into campaig reform, because the status quo is mighty fine for them. Nobody has ever spent the maximum amount allowed and nobody ever queries where the money has come from. After all the donations do not have to be declared until six months after the election.
In fact them only piece of meaningful election reform will never happen here because the move would be too transparent. I refer to the notion of declaring donations within 30 days of receiving them. Imagine going to the election booth knowing just who was bankrolling a candidate, an amazing piece of knowledge. Never happen!
14 comments:
When it comes to municipal issues, it looks like the readers are more interested in garbage cans than either the community centre costings or election campaign reform.
Not a very good omen if we want better local government.
What would make local government "better" in Deb's opinion? and better HOW?
Good government is one that practises democracy. It consults with its citizens, then actually implements their wishes. It does not ram expensive vanity projects through when the population has clearly indicated it does not want them.
Now that I have demonstrated some good will by replying, how about you reveal yourself, Anon?
"That" anon is not this anon.
I think you are asking that we reveal ourselves.
Put yourself in my shoes. That's not the same as being in your shoes, Deb. Given your work situation, your existing public profile, etc, you can identify openly on a blog such as this.
If I did, I would suffer repercussions at work, in various involvements municipally and so on.
So, there are good reasons NOT to do so that might not apply for you but do affect others.
re "Good government is one that practises democracy. It consults with its citizens, then actually implements their wishes."
As far as I can tell, practicing "democracy" does not require consultation on every issue (including those involving money). Binding consultation seems to come through referendae (or plebiscites) but not the kind of consultation you advocate, Deb. Local government asks (or sometimes just pretends to) for public input presumably so they can get a better feel for a generalized public opinion. Often, that input is all over the map and that seems to indicate a significantly diverse range of public support or lack of it, for the matter in question.
Two thoughts on this.
First, with a wide range of people in support right through to people dead against a matter, what would YOU have them do, or better yet, what WOULD YOU do to meet all those conflicting demands and expectations?
Secondly, the most common reaction from those that end up on the "losing" side is that the politicians "never listen" to the public. The truth of that matter is that in fact they did not proceed in the direction demanded by that 'side' of the argument. In defense of those politicians, I believe they do listen and most of the time do hear what is being said, but at the end of the day, they must decide on a course of action and someone is going to be damn angry with it. To be fair and equitable, as is the practice in a democracy, don't accuse them of not listening in the first place, and then ramming the decision down anyone's throat. We would do well to remember that by electing these people to Council, we (taxpayers) have given them the authority to make all relevant decisions on our (taxpayer's) behalf during that term. They would be hampered to extremes in that duty if they had to "consult" us on every issue before them. Again, in their defense, I could not point to any decision that went against the entire population. More likely, those cases went against the vocal opposition and it can rarely be deemed, with certainty, to be speaking for the overwhelming majority.
Gnashing and gnawing makes for colourful prose but when reason is applied, many complaints against councilors can be seen as unfair or misguided. Then again, there have been some real dillies, and there will always be more, that are on the mark and well deserved at that.
As one who has often taken them to task, I have no reservations in defending their conduct of duties, whereas I have had much to say about the reasoning behind their eventual decisions, but I would not accuse them of being undemocratic or not listening.
With this in mind, how would you improve local government?
I agree with you, poster # 4, and have acknowledged in other posts that there are good reasons to be anonymous.
I understand your point because I too have constraints on what I can say that will always remain because of my work, and these apply beyond my tenure there. Confidentiality is forever, baby!
The positive side is that because the work made me accustomed to standing up for my opinions I am not afraid to do so.
I'm sure that you, poster # 4, would agree with me that some anonymous posters have less benign reasons to be undercover and just want to take shots at people. That is an abuse of the privilege, and the Burd Report is taking action to stop it.
I'd like to see anonymous posters give themselves a screen name, so at least we know which anon. poster is which and can get to know them. Besides, it would be fun to make up names, poster # 4 could be "shadow man" or something.
Jeez, all I said was people cared more about garbage bins than some of the major spending issues in town.
I would certainly advocate a return to the 3 year term for muncipal pols. but beyond that observation I am content to let others make their own recommendations on improving local government.
I'm just Jane Citizen, no expert on this stuff with no desire to become one.
Deb said "Jeez, all I said was people cared more about garbage bins than some of the major spending issues in town." Let me refresh your memory - you then said "Not a very good omen if we want better local government." My interest was drawn to the latter statement and caused me to challenge you by asking what you would do better and how you would do that. This is not the first time that you have expressed your disappointment with the local politicians and here is an opportunity to tell us how you would make things better, as you seem to be hoping for ("..if we want better local government.").
Don't back off now ("I am content to let others make their own recommendations on improving local government" - stand up for your opinion about local government ("accustomed to standing up for my opinions I am not afraid to do so"). Let's hear what you propose to improve local government, or failing that, perhaps you should have more respect and understanding for what they are doing, and less chronic complaining about it. Your turn.
Good posts, Manfred.
I might not agree 100% with the content of what you usually say but I do respect the thoughtful and courteous way you express yourself.
That is most welcome.
Deb's suggestion of creating a Google Account screen name and / or Open ID user name and using that regularly is something I would consider, having been supporting this blog for some months now and joining the exchange of opinions regularly.
Putting myself in her shoes, I understand her wish to be able to sort out posts from "this" anonymous as opposed to "that" anonymous.
Before I would actually do that, though, I would like answers to a couple of technical questions from Ben.
Accepting that other readers / aliases / comment-posters never see anything more than my chosen alias, my key question would be:
As the blogger, how much information do you "see" about us?
Do you only see the chosen alias?
Do you also see the email address attached to that chosen alias?
Do you see the IP address associated with either anonymous or alias comments posted -- and passing through your approval?
Do you see a record of the IP addresses that are used to access your blog by people who only ever read but never comment?
What if my anonymity in terms of other blog readers is not the only aspect that is important to me but preserving my anonymity from the blog-owner?
One reason these thoughts occur to me is the big fuss that was made -- which was quite revealing to me -- on another blogspot about how the blogger had information about how often the IP associated with the Cobourg Police accessed that other blog, how long that IP was logged on to the blog page each time it was accessed, etc.
Another reason is that I have been "burned" before by someone using exactly this type of information to stalk, harass and attack me online because feathers had been ruffled and someone went flip-show.
I would rather avoid ever experiencing that again.
Anon
There are two issues in your question:
1. Can an anon be identified by a comment --- NO. All I receive from Blogspot is an email saying that Anon has left the following comment.
All the privacy questions you ask are Google matters.
2. Can I track you from my site stats. I can only track the IP addresses that people use when they come into the site. Identifiable sites like cobourgpolice.com can be seen so can many IP that only have numbers
SO although I can track hits and the times of those hits I would need to know exactly the time of the day you hit the site and look for the IP address that fits that time and do a reverse IP search and then discover what I knew already that you are signed up to Bell, Eagle, Cogeco or Rogers.
So if you want to be sure about whether i can track you don't worry about it unless you are signed up to a host with an original name. But even themn all I would knnow is that one of their customers hit the site not specifically you.
I hope this is clear if not PM at ben@eagle.ca
All you need to do is click on Name, then instead of putting your name, write Shadow Man. Like I did.
Okay. I am trying it.
To Anon re "good posts..."
Thank you.
As I've said in the past, 'agreement often stifles deeper discussion'. Agreement is not an issue for me whereas an explanation of any disagreement would help me to improve my rationalizations and hopefully result in better understanding by me.
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