I'll mention just two. Very briefly, two countries have a lot of influence on Canadian political culture.
The U.S. has essentially no spending limits at all on anything. The only spending limit that applies is when a presidential candidate agrees to accept public funding. Increasingly, over the latest campaigns, they've declined; even the Democratic candidates have declined. With the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United about five or six years ago, the limits on contributions are even weaker than they used to be as are the limits on the reporting by what are called political action committees.
The U.S. is in no way—in no way—a valid point of reference for Canada in this area. Call me undecided.
In the U.K., only since 2000 have there been limits on party spending. Candidates were limited in 1883. But there are no contribution limits, so there are still regular donations—and I'm not making this up—of as much as one million pounds to political parties, including to the Labour Party. It's interesting that often some of these donors magically find themselves sitting on the cross-bench of the House of Lords or sometimes on the party benches of the House of Lords.
Historically, Britain has been somewhat of a reference point because, when the Barbeau committee was looking at spending limits in the 1960s, it could look to Britain where there were candidate limits and agency—the official agent concept was started in the U.K. in 1883. Britain has evolved, but there are still areas where the equity that's meant to be in a political finance regime is not present.