It's quite simple. I will give you an example. In 2003, when Parliament decided to eliminate the ability of companies and unions to give money to political parties, more than half the parties' funding came from those sources. When you take away such significant revenue sources from political parties, the tap has to be turned on somewhere, because there is no word from on high saying that individuals are going to make contributions to fill the void created by the ban on corporate contributions.
What happened at the federal level in 2003 was that a very large subsidy was created—I don't know how much per voter—that was paid to the political parties, with the result, and it was Mr. Kingsley, the former Chief Electoral Officer, who told me, that nearly 80% of the funding the parties relied on came from government subsidies.