Mr. Speaker, I know the speaker did not mention it, but her colleague, the Minister of Labour, talked about what she referred to as the per vote subsidy and how this is an unfair subsidy of political parties by the taxpayer.
However, I wonder if she would care to comment on the distinction between what this particular method of financing political parties, which is pretty democratic in nature, each voter, regardless of his or financial ability, can trigger a contribution to the public purse to a political party by his or her vote; for example, over a four year cycle, $8.00. Whereas what is left in place is a system whereby if an individual gives $100, for example, to the Conservative Party that triggers a taxpayer contribution of $75 back to the taxpayer, effectively subsidizing the contribution.
So, we really have a system that is being left in place that actually can only be accessed by people who have money; whereas the individual $2.00 per vote payment is a more democratic one available to every single person.
Does she not think that it is much fairer to say that each voter can trigger a public contribution by his or her vote rather than by someone who can afford to contribute $100 to a political party?