While Justin Trudeau never stops postponing the slightest decision, François Legault gives the impression of considering reflection as a waste of time.
The day after his party’s crushing defeat in last October’s by-election in Jean-Talon, it took him barely 24 hours to resuscitate the third link, the incongruity of which he had had to recognize six months earlier later. having advocated its virtues for five years.
At the start of the week, Mr. Legault declared that the file on fundraising cocktails which allowed a mayor or an entrepreneur to have access to his ministers in exchange for a donation of $100 was closed. He was willing to admit that CAQ deputies had sent invitations whose wording was questionable, but he assured that this could be corrected quickly.
Two days later, he announced instead that his party would henceforth renounce all private contributions and he invited the other parties to join him in banning them. While we’re at it, we could also ban cars, this would prevent speeding.
However, the CAQ instead proposed last summer to double the maximum authorized amount, which has been capped at $100 for 10 years, revealed 98.5 FM. On December 4, 2023, all parties, including the CAQ, had given their agreement to this proposal, Élections Québec confirmed. It was only last week that the CAQ retracted.
The Prime Minister claimed he had been thinking about banning crowdfunding “for some time,” but that thought was clearly as short-lived as it was recent. Everything suggests that it was provoked by the display of the “blunders” of its deputies in the media.
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We can understand the Prime Minister being furious to see the start of the parliamentary term turn into a disaster when he had promised to avoid the “distractions” that marked the last year, but that is not a reason for everything. demolish.
In 2013, the Marois government lowered the ceiling on contributions from $1,000 to $100 per year to put an end to the practice of nominees, which notably allowed companies to pay considerable sums into the party fund then that the law has prohibited them from any contribution since 1977.
The revelations of the Charbonneau commission justified this tightening, but the increase in the cost of living does not spare the political parties. Raising the ceiling to $200 to take into account inflation over the last 10 years would not reopen the door to nominees. This is already the case in an election year, and no abuse has been noted. We could even think of periodic indexing.
As much as the good health of a democracy requires rigorous control of the sources of financing of political parties, it also requires that citizens be able to contribute to it. When it was argued that the ban on popular financing would make the creation of new parties very difficult, if not impossible, Mr. Legault indicated that exceptions would indeed have to be considered. But is a “two-speed” political system really desirable? Should contributions at the municipal level also be banned?
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It was all nonsense. Mr. Legault could not imagine that the opposition parties would follow him in this direction when they receive three times less state subsidies, which are calculated based on the results of the last elections.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to resolve “this problem which is bad, in fact, for the entire political class”, but his party is currently the only one to have one. Already, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has promised that a PQ government would prohibit its ministers from participating in fundraising activities; we will be able to remind him of this if necessary.
The trap was so big that no one can seriously accuse the opposition parties of wanting to maintain a flawed system from which the CAQ would virtuously rid Quebec. Claiming to want to complete the work of René Lévesque was the icing on the sundae.
He who thinks he takes is taken. Now that the Prime Minister has made the commitment, the CAQ will have to at least temporarily renounce any contribution, even from its members.
It is true that the $4.7 million it receives from the state should allow it to support itself for a while. Not to mention the resources that the party that forms the government can count on. So much the better if this can give him a little peace of mind until the next elections, because he will have a lot of other things to worry about until then.