According to the New York Times, B.C. is the "Wild West" of political donations in Canada.
In an article published Friday, the newspaper took aim at Premier Christy Clark and the BC Liberal party bringing international attention to how B.C. has no limits on political donations, unlike many other provinces that have banned corporate, union, and foreign donations.
According to the Times article, Clark’s party has received over $718,000 in donations from Kinder Morgan, the backers of the recently approved Trans Mountain pipeline project, and these political donations, among many others, partially go towards her stipend funded by the party.
The article also states that since Clark was elected as Premier in 2011, she has collected over $277,000 in stipends from the BC Liberal Party, up to $50,000 annually on top of her annual public salary of $195,000. The Times notes that only one other province in the country, Saskatchewan, has a premier that receives a stipend.
B.C.'s conflict-of-interest commissioner Paul Fraser is also targeted by the Times about his ties to the party in power, particularly over his donations to the party and his son’s position in the Premier’s cabinet. Fraser is also criticized for having never found any government official to be in violation of the Conflict of Interest Act during his nine years as conflict-of-interest commissioner.
Last year, there were separate attempts through proposed legislation to reform BC’s archaic political contribution laws for both the provincial government and municipal governments, but the proposed ban on union and corporation donations were rejected.
