Poll indicates corporate and union donations distasteful to many municipal election candidates

From Campaign Fairness

Campaign Fairness asked municipal election candidates in the Lake Simcoe watershed to respond to a poll about their campaign donation sources. As of September 11, 79% of respondents have said YES, they will promise to accept donations for their 2014 municipal election campaign from individuals only, and refuse donations from corporations and unions. Of the 210 registered candidates contacted by September 11, 54% responded to the poll. 90 candidates will not be accepting corporate or union donations.

“There are even more candidates than the poll results show who agree that taking donations from the development industry is bad politics,” says Campaign Fairness manager Claire Malcolmson. “Many candidates accept donations from small businesses, but not from the development industry. They would either not respond to our poll or answer “no” and add comments explaining their position. That is why we encourage voters to learn about their candidates position on our website, or ask questions at all candidates meetings.”

Campaign Fairness is concerned about the extent of corporate, and particularly development industry, funding of candidates, and the impact on election outcomes. A 2006 study in Southern Ontario revealed that 78% of the winning municipal candidates were incumbents – they had been elected before – and that they got 3/4 of all the corporate contributions. Due to the incumbency advantage the poll results do not indicate that greener Councils will prevail in 2014.

According to a 2006 study most corporate contributions are from the development industry. In Simcoe County municipalities experiencing rapid growth, the development industry gave 75% of the contributions from corporations (and 43% of total contributions) received by election winners.

The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, which houses Campaign Fairness, promotes green space protection, not settlement area expansion. “Municipal politicians who have no ties to developers may be the people most committed to increasing the amount of protected green spaces in the watershed and who may insist upon high environmental standards for new development. Lake Simcoe needs these measures,” says Tim Crooks, President of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition.

All candidates’ responses and their comments are available here

Campaign Fairness Media coverage

Help us spread the gospel about municipal election campaign financing! Read and share our media coverage online at the links below, or check out our press releases and media coverage at http://www.campaignfairness.com/press-media/

-New residential development needs to be environmentally friendly http://bit.ly/1s3KhAQ

Barrie Examiner

=Radio interview on Orillia Sunshine 90 radio http://bit.ly/YzZvQT

-Democracy and the Lake http://bit.ly/WTv1bq

Lake Simcoe Living Magazine