Editorial: About that $2

Jeff Green | Apr 07, 2011

Editorial by Jeff Green

Prime Minister Harper said last week that, “Public money should not be used to support political parties that the public does not support” as he proposed to scrap the program that pays $2 annually to political parties for each vote they receive at election time.

Harper's argument is consistent with a Conservative value. Why should taxes be used to support political parties? People who want to support their favourite party can give them money each year if they want to, and there is a generous tax benefit to those kinds of donations, namely a 75% refundable tax credit.

So, for $25 in net cost to me, I can donate $100 each year to the political part of my choice.

But maybe I don’t want to give any of my money to any of the parties, but I do want to be able to allocate a measly $2 out of all the sales and excise and income taxes that I pay each year to feed the great beast of government.

I should point out that of the 308 ridings in the country, only about 75 are considered to be “in play” during this election, and LFL&A is not one of those 75. So, not to put too fine a point on it, whoever I decide to support, my vote will be swallowed up into the great vacuum of the first past the post system, never to be heard from again.

For now, at least, there is still one concrete result of my decision to vote, the $2 payment.

It is actually the opposite of what Mr. Harper said. The $2 payment ensures that public money will go to a party that I, a single member of the public, decide to support.

I would prefer it if the electoral system was such that my vote actually counted, but that would require electoral reform, which is less likely than a Conservative/Bloc Quebecois coalition.

So, I say, until you allow for electoral reform. Mr. Harper, leave my two bucks alone.