Mr. Speaker, certainly undue influence and undue foreign influence is a concern in our elections.
It is good to have a large number of grassroots Canadians participating in the democratic process, which is certainly preferable to a small number of well-to-do insiders. However, I would caution against the idea of public funds for parties or a per-vote subsidy for parties. If individuals want to get people to vote for them, they have to go out, knock on doors and do some fundraising at the same time. I think that having a nominal amount of fundraising for candidates and for parties is a good thing.