Sorry Hugh, but using your party’s public funding to sue the Doer government so it can’t give you public funding any longer is too cute by half. If you really want to make a statement, then simply turn the money down, or at least donate it to charity.
As for your fear you’d be dooming the party to endless election losses by refusing the cash, well I’d suggest that’s something you should have thought about before launching this offensive.
I’m not really sure where the Tories are going with this issue in the first place. The general public doesn’t seem to care, and the media — with the notable exception of Brodbeck — appear somewhat favourable toward the election law changes. The only people who are going to get hot and bothered about it are already core Tory voters.
So instead of falsely huffing and puffing about how Doer is screwing you over, why not just accept the funding and use it instead to advance issues that actually matter to Joe or Jane Manitoban?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: hugh mcfadyen, PC Manitoba, province of manitoba
So can you explain why taxpayers should subsidize the Communist Party or any other fringe party? What about independant candidates who can poll 10 times the votes of a communist or green candidate but under the bill gets nothing?
A few things Robo:
First, this post isn’t really about whether public funding for political parties is right or wrong. I’m saying that making a big deal of this is a dead-end political strategy for the Tories.
Second, I don’t mean to insult your sense of democracy, but why shouldn’t the Communist Party or other fringe parties receive funding? After all, it’s not illegal to be a communist. I certainly don’t support them, but then again I don’t really support the NDP either. And you should remember that our current federal government had its start as a “fringe party” in the 1980s.
Personally, I’m not too bothered by this proposal, as it seems like a fair trade-off for getting rid of large corporate and union donations. I do think the timing is a bit odd though, as the Doer government got rid of those donations a few years ago.
You do make a fair point about the independents, and I’m not sure how to deal with that. Perhaps refunding a larger portion of their qualifying campaign expenses than is done for political parties?
I’m trying to understand Doer’s play on this because a lot of these moves while they do hurt the Tories a little bit, really seem to prop up the Manitoba Liberals a lot more and when the NDP lose elections in Manitoba it is because the Manitoba Liberal Party is able to poll around 20% and win seats from the Dippers in Winnipeg.
I agree completely Greg. As Curtis Brown has suggested over at Endless Spin, I think this has more to do with Doer trying to prevent anyone (NDP, PC or Liberal) from repeating his election success in the future.
This is also why I find the Tory complaints about this legislation to be laughable. “Election fixing law”? Hardly.
I’m all for a strong Manitoba Liberal party, I have not voted for them since ‘95, but I think this province would be well served to break away from the Dipper/Tory two piece we have had going for over 40 years, a third party that can shake things up could really benifit the province.
That said I don’t want it like when Carstaris reduced the Dippers to a rump and allowed the Tories to cruise though unopposed.