From the Calgary Herald – Dec 3, 2009

Fixing the broken system of how we fund candidates is the single most important thing that Calgary city council needs to do–yes, even more important than doggy doo user fees.

Why, then, am I so annoyed that council has finally taken some grasping, tentative, grudging steps in the right direction?

The problem is twofold: the changes are so weak as to have little effect, and the timing is so awful that it actually makes the problem worse, at least for the 2010 election.

First, some history. Right now there are no rules. Really. There is a requirement that candidates disclose all who donate more than $100 some months after the election, and that’s pretty much it. A candidate can spend more than one million bucks of his own money, as Alnoor Kassam did, or have the campaign funded by giant donations from city unions, like former alderman Helene Larocque. Most council members, though, just rely on the same-old, same-old–going to the development and construction industries for the vast majority of their money. Money they get to keep personally if it’s not all spent.

The Better Calgary Campaign surveyed all candidates in that race, and seven current aldermen (Dale Hodges, Bob Hawkesworth, Druh Farrell, John Mar, Joe Ceci, Brian Pincott, Ric McIver) said they were in favour of reform. Mayor Dave Bronconnier did not respond to the question directly, but upon being elected, suggested that campaign finance reform would be an urgent priority for the new council.

Nothing happened.

Council made some noises about the issue and referred it to a committee that didn’t meet on this issue for over a year. They asked that a panel be set up. It never was.

Instead, the city’s legal department suggested that the city did not have the power to influence change –always a specious argument, since voluntary restriction could be put in place. Indeed, nothing would have stopped council from passing a bylaw and requesting that the provincial government explicitly grant it the power to implement it. What provincial minister would say, “Oh, you want openness and transparency? Yeah, we don’t support that.”

But instead, council did nothing. Even after the Alberta legislature passed Bill 203 in May, council did nothing. Even after the minister failed to proclaim the legislation (who knew he could do that?), council did nothing. Now, six long months later, council has moved to potentially make a few small changes –if the legal department agrees.

The changes are indeed so small as to be meaningless. A $5,000 cap on donations is so high as to be no cap at all. Indeed, the last time around, only Bronconnier, McIver (just barely), Ald. Ray Jones, and the defeated Larocque accepted any individual or corporate donations greater than this. Council twice on Monday rejected bids to reduce this number to $2,500.

Further, because the changes will not be retroactive, and because they won’t come into effect until February, they give incumbents an enormous advantage. Those who already have large bank accounts (for example, the mayor is carrying a $300,000 surplus and Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart $98,000) will swamp challengers. Council also declared Tuesday that it’s open season. If a candidate wants to raise giant donations, he has two months to do so before the door is closed. In effect, we will have candidates in the same election playing under different rules.

It’s time for the city to admit to its game-playing and put in much more restrictive rules, even if only voluntary, such as the six proposed by the Better Calgary Campaign. If council can’t summon up the will to do it, the province must step in. A failure to do so would be a great failure of democracy.

Naheed Nenshi teaches at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School Of Business and volunteers with the Better Calgary Campaign ( www.bettercalgary.ca)

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