To the editor,
When my mother was a kid on the South Shore, on election day voters would drive up one end of her parents' driveway, fetch their bottle of rum and drive down the other side. It was like a free Tory drive-through LC. Except for the price of real democracy. While I'm not so naive to say that this doesn't happen any more, I do think happens a little less.
One way to clean up our political process involves the election finance reform bill the Conservatives are attempting to pass without changes made to it by the NDP. The bill, as it stands now, would still allow corporate and union donations, and allow the provincial Liberals to spend their questionable $3.5 million "investment fund," as long as this money was spent outside of the four weeks of an election campaign.
The Liberals have a great opportunity here. They can accept the NDP's changes to the bill, create a united front against the government and create a cleaner democracy. They can prove that their party has moved beyond scandal and corruption. Or they can hope the voters forget.
By Aaron Harpell
