Mr. Speaker, I've already commented on that, but one proposal for public funding that we felt would be a reasonable compromise was to bring back the per-vote amount that used to be allocated to each party. That ended under Stephen Harper. At the time, it was about $1.75 per vote. One idea would be to reinstate that at $2.
We could certainly discuss the particulars, but, hypothetically, if it were reinstated at $2 per vote, since there are roughly 19 million voters in Canada, it would cost about $40 million per year. It would be roughly equivalent to the tax credit for contributions to political parties. If the government eliminated that tax credit and spent the money on per-vote contributions, it would be a wash. It would also be more democratic, as I suggested, because the government's contribution would be tied to the number of votes, not to party donors' ability to donate.