In early 2010, Campbell’s Liberals set up a task force to look at changes that should be made to the Local Elections Act (B.C.).
It shouldn’t surprise you too much that, despite thousands of suggestions by concerned citizens, nothing came of it.
One of the recommendations that nearly all of the contributors made was along the lines of: “No corporation, union or other business entity may make a campaign contribution to a candidate.”
I apologize for laying this on you, Mayor Ashton, but why would a “construction company” gift you with a $5,000 contribution for your mayoralty campaign? Perhaps they had missed you on their last Christmas gift list?
A question for Penticton residents: “Would you have voted for Dan Ashton if you had been made aware in advance that nearly half of his campaign donations came from one donor?” Particularly one as questionable as a construction company?
Another of the suggestions made to the elections task force was that all contributions to candidates should, upon receipt, be made public on the city’s website.
This would allow voters details of any unusually large donations, and who the donor was. Voters might change their minds when voting if this information was available. Naturally, this too was ignored by Campbell and Clark.
Frank Martens
Summerland