Owen Abrey Don't you donate to the NDP? If you gave 1k last year, then we paid 750 to you via tax credit. So you aren't actually paying for my donation, you are paying for yours. In my austere career, we had our 4th child while earning 270.00 per week. I know poverty first hand. I know that in Canada we are wealthy enough to afford to be a card-carrying member of a political party. If we value something enough, we will scrape the dollars together to buy it, even if it means you will never need the tax credit

• Owen Abrey

  Owen Abrey Don't you donate to the NDP? If you gave 1k last year, then we paid 750 to you via tax credit. So you aren't actually paying for my donation, you are paying for yours. In my austere career, we had our 4th child while earning 270....00 per week. I know poverty first hand. I know that in Canada we are wealthy enough to afford to be a card-carrying member of a political party. If we value something enough, we will scrape the dollars together to buy it, even if it means you will never need the tax creditSee More

  2 hours ago ·
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  Michael. Ryan Perhaps this should go another step. In middle Europe, I have seen advertising places for political parties during campaigns. You put all of your literature in the designated spot .... and that is it. However, I am not sure how you control the party-in-power from producing self-serving advertising campaigns telling you how well they have done with your money. Sigh.

  about an hour ago ·
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  Owen Abrey

  I hear you Michael, it is very hard not to become cynical. So much about politics is spin, deflection, and the avoidance of truth. I am not sure what the alternative really can be. I can't see that abandoning freedom of speech to put it ...all in one place on one wall helps democracy. Surely certain parties attract wealthier individuals. But 16 million people who ready to put their money where there mouth is behind a political party, will not be daunted by fancy advertising. People convinced that a certain direction is right for a country will not be swayed by opposition. Surely this is the political lesson that was learned from the Reform-Alliance movement. Love or hate their politics, it was a tectonic shift in a country run by Red Tories and Liberals since Diefenbaker. The ideology, the belief system comes first, the money follows after. When a belief becomes bankrupt, its not long before that is reflected by their bottom line. People vote with their dollars. They spend them on their deeply held values, not intellectual acrobatics. It in itself is a kind of democracy. One that costs more than an x on a page.See More

  4 minutes ago ·
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  Owen Abrey The $2.00 subsidy was the life line for the bloc. And let me tell you I would rather have Jack representing the people of Quebec than them. If by some extraordinary circumstance the bloc falls, never to rise again because the Canadian tax payer is not providing them the hind teat, it is time to celebrate this sort of democracy over the other.