Prime Minister Stephen Harper & Finance Minister Jim Flaherty

On Thursday, November 27th, the Conservatives are expected to announce a plan that would slash public funding for political parties beginning next year. Jim Flaherty, Canada’s Finance Minister, will make the announcement in his fiscal update – a proposal that is seen as a declaration of war to opposition parties.

Currently, all political parties receive a public subsidy of $1.75 per year for each vote they receive in the most recent general election. This subsidy has cost taxpayers approximately $28-million in the past year.

So what’s the reason behind this plan? Well, it depends who you ask. The Conservatives argue that such spending cuts are meant to show Canadians politicians are prepared to sacrifice their fair share during times of economic crisis. The opposition, on the other hand, claim the proposal is a Conservative scheme to weaken the opposition by cutting off their supply of funds.

Consider this: Public funding for the Conservative Party accounted for 37% of revenue compared to 63% for the Liberals, 86% for the Bloc, 57% for the NDP and 65% of the Green’s. Could it be that the Conservatives are strategically planning for the next election? It’s certainly plausible.

There’s no doubt Flaherty will have a very difficult time convincing the opposition of the Conservative’s intentions when drawing up this plan. It will certainly be interesting, and entertaining, to see how they respond.

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Tags: conservatives, fiscal, jim flaherty, public funding

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 2:07 am and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.