The New York Times has called British Columbia “The Wild West of Political Cash.” On the verge of a provincial election, any corporation, union or individual in the world can give however much money they want to British Columbia’s provincial political parties. Sam talks to Dermod Travis of Integrity BC about what this has meant for BC’s democracy, then he convenes a panel of leading political scholars to discuss the role of corporate money in North American politics.

Plus, check out our article we published with The Tyee: Don’t Expect End to Fundraising Free-For-All Under Clark, Says Critic 

 

Panelists:

Chuka Ejeckam – Political science student at UBC. Researcher with the Centre for The Study of Democratic Institutions. Just starting a project to map and analyze campaign donations to political parties in BC.

Leslie Seidle – Research Director for the Canada’s Changing Federal Community at the Institute for Research on Public Policy.

Robert Boatright is a Professor of Political Science at Clark University. He’s the author of Interest Groups and Campaign Finance Reform in the United States and Canada.

Harold Jansen  is a political scientist at the University of Lethbridge and the author of Money, Politics and Democracy: Canada’s Party Finance Reforms.