Will Bill C-24 bury the Labour-NDP Alliance?

Jim Selby, AFL Staff

The amendments to the Canada Elections Act proposed under Bill C-24 will change the historic relationship between the New Democratic Party and the Canadian labour movement beyond recognition.

If Bill C-24 passes, and the Prime Minister appears determined that it will, then trade unions and corporations will have a $1,000 contribution maximum at the local (candidate or riding association) level only. For the purposes of the Act, the total of all contributions from all locals of a union will not be allowed to exceed the limit. Individual donations will be capped at $10,000.

Given that contribution cap, the current financial model of trade union affiliation to the NDP would also be unworkable. There could still be affiliation if no payment was involved, but currently affiliation provides unions with substantial convention delegate entitlements in return for financial support, and it is difficult to see why the Party would continue that preferential treatment in the absence of financial support.

For the same reasons, unions could no longer release staff or local union officers and activists for election work unless the Party pays them.

Political parties will receive an annual public subsidy of $1.50 for every vote they received in the previous election to replace the lost corporate and union financing.

Unfortunately, one of the worst current excesses in Canadian politics – third party advertising campaigns by groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Association- are not dealt with at all in the Bill.