Mr. Speaker, bashing politicians has become a national pastime in Canada. It is often done with tongue in cheek because I think that most Canadians who know their member of Parliament are quite pleased with their member of Parliament. They elected their member of Parliament not for what he or she promised to do but rather for what he or she had done and the credentials that he or she brought to the job. It is much the same situation with banks. Canadians hate banks but they sure do love their own bank because the tellers are so good. It is one of those situations when talking about politicians.
The national pastime being what it is, to bash politicians, this will be a very difficult bill to deal with, but there must be a reason. As a preamble what I would like to do is inform Canadians. Members know them but I am not sure that Canadians are well aware of what the rules of the game are with regard to people in politics.
People who are nominated to be candidates in an election during the election campaign have an opportunity to raise money. For those contributions, there are rules that provide for tax credits, obviously generous tax credits, which would help those candidates raise the money they need to run their election campaigns. Following an election campaign, any moneys that are left over have to go to a riding association.
Every party has riding associations in all 301 constituencies across Canada. In non-election years, those riding associations continue to do things such as policy development, constitutional work and fundraisers to cover their mailing costs and their meeting costs, as well as to build up a bit of a war chest to help support their respective candidates in the next election. Those contributions to riding associations whether they be through cocktail parties or dinners, also have eligible tax credits under the Canada Elections Act.
At the same time, the national parties are the umbrellas over all of that. There are a number of national parties. There are five official parties in the House today. All those parties continue to exist as umbrellas in the continuity with a broad base of membership from all ridings across the country. Their responsibilities also include things such as developing policy, supporting their caucus members, those members who are elected to Parliament, as well as fundraising to pay the bills for operating a large national organization. Members know the importance of their research facilities and the support people that are necessary to communicate to Canadians what their party stands for.
The political infrastructure exists so that Canadians have choices. The parties put forward candidates and the party that elects the most members of Parliament forms the government. Its platform is well known, its leader is known, et cetera.
It takes a great deal of work to earn the respect of the people of Canada, the voters, and to be in this place. Members will know that to be in this place is a great honour. We are 301 people out of 31 million. It is a great honour. I know that all members here very much value the opportunity we have been given by our constituents.
This is called the political process. This is called providing democracy with the instruments and the vehicles that are necessary to have a dynamic policy debate.
There are differences among all the parties on some items but on other items they are very close. The philosophies are not totally different. There are not people who are so far out of the ballpark that they are not appealing to some corner of the country. That is evidenced by the fact that they have representation in this country.
We need this public process. We need political parties. We need riding associations. We need candidates. It is all part of the political infrastructure that supports the democratic parliamentary system that we have in Canada.
I do not want to talk about the comparison with the United States. It is not comparable. The United States system is based simply on money. In Canada we have a system of publicly supported financing.
Under our system every Canadian has the opportunity to be a member of Parliament because they do not have to worry about being outspent by someone. We have laws that limit how much someone can spend on elections and limits on amounts that can be contributed. Contrary to the laws in the U.S., our laws ensure that every Canadian has the opportunity to run for public office and to become a member of Parliament for the party of their choice or even as an independent. That is why the publicly financed system is there.
The Prime Minister said very clearly that the principle of public financing of our political system has been well established and well accepted in Canada. However it is still part of politics, which goes back to the original premise, that it is a national pastime to bash politicians and politics.
Another aspect to the bill has to do with bringing into the process the whole idea of nominations and trying to put some regulatory framework around the limits that can be spent for nominations. I will not talk about individual details, which I could probably argue in many ways, but when I sought the nomination for the Liberal Party of Canada in 1979, when the Conservative government fell, I was not a member of the Liberal Party of Canada at the time. I was active in my community and I was very interested. Someone came to me and asked if I would like to be considered for the nomination for the Liberal Party in the riding. I did not give it very much thought but then I thought I might and that started to snowball. I spent about $300 of my money. I spray painted some signs in my basement with some friends.