Fresh Start for Liberals: McNeil Does the Right Thing
What matters most is not what you say in the beginning, but what you do in the end. That's what the provincial Liberal caucus hopes in the wake of its surprising decision this week to help fast-track reforms that hit the party squarely in the pocketbook.
As part of NDP legislation that bans corporate and union donations to political parties, the Liberals' $2.3-million trust fund - some of which was raised through illegal kickback schemes in the 1970s - is also being frozen out.
Initially, the Liberals warned that the move was less about levelling the playing field, as the NDP claimed, and more about crippling them. While prohibited from using the trust fund in election campaigns, the party still relied on it to fund day-to-day operations. But by week's end, Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil had dramatically cut loose the trust-fund millstone. The Liberal caucus voted in favour of the reforms, which quickly passed with the unanimous consent of the House.
Mr. McNeil deserves credit for doing the right thing here, although critics will say he merely put the best shine on surrender. It's true that the reforms would have passed with or without him, since the NDP has a majority.
As for Mr. McNeil's other options, they weren't very palatable politically. He could have bided his time and waited until the day the Liberals won a majority, then repealed the NDP legislation. In the meantime, he might have ordered a truly independent audit of the fund and made the case the party should be allowed to continue to use the kosher portion. (The Liberals did investigate themselves and return $1.3 million in tainted money to the provincial treasury in the early 1990s, but that so-called audit was deliberately narrow in scope.)
However, such a course of action would only have given an old, sordid story a fresh pair of legs.
So Mr. McNeil wisely opted for a clean break with the past - to put the trust-fund bogeyman behind the party and move on. This decision, while it will hurt the bottom line and rankle party insiders, does put Mr. McNeil in a better position to earn Nova Scotians' trust as a man of integrity and to push for further, principled reforms to electoral laws.
Specifically, Mr. McNeil would like to see a clampdown on third-party advertising, as recommended by the provincial chief electoral officer in her recent report. During the June election, one union overtly campaigned in favour of the NDP. The concern is that unless controls are brought in, interest groups can be used to get around spending limits.
The NDP should take a serious look at this and other loopholes, lest the tables be turned on them.
Source: The Chronicle Herald, Editorial, Saturday, October 24, 2009, p. A14
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