liberal $ caps, leadership race

Liberals urged to cap leadership spending
Potential candidates seek reform.
Lowering entry fee for race from $75,000 could also help level campaign playing field
JULIET O'NEILL, February 27, 2006

Some potential Liberal leadership candidates are urging party executives to set the stage for a less expensive and fairer contest, saying a distasteful era of corporate influence and "instant Liberals" must be relegated to history.

Lawyer Martha Hall Findlay wants a lower entry fee for the Liberal leadership race than the $75,000 charged last time.

MP Carolyn Bennett wants leadership campaign spending capped at $1 million.

That's one-quarter the limit of $4 million set in 2003 - when Paul Martin won after raising about $12 million, mostly from corporations and wealthy individuals, leaving four other candidates in the dust.

Hall and Bennett are also pushing for Liberal membership rules, or a voluntary code of conduct, that prevents any leadership candidate or their backers from buying party memberships en masse - creating large pools of "instant Liberals" - to vote in the 2006 leadership contest.

Hall, the one declared candidate, and Bennett, one of several MPs considering a run, are calling for campaign rules that prevent any candidate from dwarfing others and that help all candidates take advantage of a new law banning the corporate donations on which Liberals have relied in the past for the majority of financing.

Individual contributions now are limited to a maximum of $5,200 per leadership race.

Mike Eizenga, the Liberal Party's president, said it is working with Elections Canada to enable individuals to channel contributions to candidates through the party, making them eligible for tax credits.

"It's not like you can cut anybody a $100,000 cheque any more, so that will affect every aspect of the campaign, starting with the registration fee," Findlay said in an interview.

"Crisp bills with matching paper clips have got to be history in our party," Bennett said in an interview. "A lot of us feel that some of the leadership costs that weren't even talked about were the costs of buying memberships for other people. There are those of us in the Liberal caucus who have fought against this for a long time."

Bennett said the party can fundraise and keep costs down by launching an Internet aspect to the race modelled on that waged by Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who created a sensation in his 2004 campaign for the U.S. Democratic presidential nomination by raising nearly $50 million online, with average donations of $80.

"I think that would be part and parcel of renewal of the Liberal Party," Bennett said.

"You want people who believe in the Liberal Party but want to see it renewed to be able to give small amounts to individual candidates in a secure way."

She said some Liberals envy the Conservative Party, which raises the lion's share of funds from donations under $200.

Hall said fellow potential candidates John Godfrey and Ken Dryden, who were not available for comment, have also weighed in on these issues.

"There are a number of us who feel quite strongly that we should have rules established that encourage a level playing field, that it is an opportunity now for the party to have a system that is transparent," she said.

"That hasn't always been the case and that's part of the distaste people have had over some time, and if we do it well this time, it could actually reflect well on the Liberal Party."

While decisions on the rules are up to the executive and its committees, such key players as Ontario Liberal president Mike Crawley are recommending an entry fee that is not much higher than $75,000, nowhere near the $500,000 rumoured on some Liberal blog sites. And a cap on campaign spending in the $2-million range has been proposed by several insiders.

Crawley said a committee of "neutral party elders" will be appointed to oversee management of the leadership contest.

"They will make sure all candidates are being treated fairly, and that the process is fair and that the rules and procedures are being followed," he said.

The party executive expects to announce a leadership vote date and the entry fee at a March 19-20 meeting. A spending cap will be announced after deliberations by a committee.
Ottawa Citizen