Thursday, November 27, 2008

Piss off the Conservatives and donate to the Liberals

Maybe this ending public party financing thing is a Machiavellian plot to destroy the Liberal Party. Maybe it’s a Machiavellian plot to distract attention from the fact the Conservatives (the highest spending government in Canadian history) have needlessly spent us into deficit. Maybe it’s a Machiavellian plot to distract attention from the fact the Conservatives will today announce no meaningful economic stimulus package, despite the cries from the provinces, business, economists, and, well, everyone, to act now.

Myself, I think it’s a combination of all of the above.

Things will play out how they play out. There is one thing we can do ourselves though. And that’s send Stephen Harper a message by making a donation to the Liberal Party today. Doesn’t need to be a lot, every little bit helps. But lets all donate a little something today to send a message to the Conservatives.

Or, better yet, join the Victory Fund. The minimum is just $10/month, with half going to to the party and half to the riding association of your choice.

As I’m already a Victory Fund member, I just made a $25 donation to the Liberal Party. I encourage you to do the same this afternoon. And after you make your donation, you can make a post in this Facebook event page to add to the total. And you can join this Facebook group to support the public financing of political parties.

Wouldn't it be great, when the next quarter donation information is released, to see a surge of donations by Liberals from across Canada on the day Harper and Flaherty made this announcement?

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4 comments:

Francesco said...

Jeff,

I am co-chair for the Victory Fund for the Toronto region and encourage every single liberal to sign and donate. Tell your friends , family etc.

Think about it this way if we sign up 100 liberals donating to the ridings $25 a month that equals $30K a year for the riding. We need to get moving and moving fast. Thus, again I encourage this word-of-mouth / internet campaign. Personally, I am a Laurier member and donate to two ridings. We need people involved and if this doesnot motivate people, than nothing will.

Cheers,
Francesco

MLM said...

This plan effectively kills the diversity of choice in Canadian elections by crippling or killing off the smaller parties, many of whom garner a decent number of votes.

By doing this, Harper is alienating young voters and people who cannot afford to donate politically by killing off their non-mainstream voting options, eliminating a variety of ideas from the public discourse, and discouraging new and fledgling parties from attempting to enter the political arena.

This is nothing less than an undemocratic manouvre, the purpose of which is political manipulation and throttling democracy. It has nothing to do with fiscal restraint. If Harper was truly interested in saving money, he would reign in the free spending of his bloated cabinet, and he wouldn't have called a $300 million dollar election when it wasn't necessary to do so.

Unknown said...

I think it's mostly a plan to distract people, but with the added bonus of knifing the Liberals (and screwing over the Greens) - like when there's a two-for-one special on something you were going to buy anyways.

Harper's hoping that the media will fixate on this, as opposed to on the jobs we're losing, his lack of any coherent stimulus plan, and his reckless spending that got us here in the first place.

Demosthenes said...

It is clearly, obviously, and completely a means by which Harper can gut the opposition. It's also disgusting Rovian bullshit that just goes to show exactly what kind of man he is.

The sweater vest is clearly off. THIS is the Harper that everybody was waiting for, and it's going to take more than the Victory Fund to defeat him.