The Manitoba Tories say new election laws will pad NDP coffers and tie Tory hands with a host of new rules on spending, advertising and taxpayer contributions to party bank accounts.
However, the Doer government said the new rules are as evenhanded as possible and mirror similar laws in other provinces and Ottawa.
Opposition Liberal and Tory MLAs spent Thursday parsing the huge package of electoral reforms the Doer government unloaded earlier this week. Among the sexier changes is a fixed date for all provincial elections -- the second Tuesday in June every four years, barring a major flood. That puts the next election on June 14, 2011.
That big change grabbed headlines, but a litany of smaller tweaks were stashed in the 50-page omnibus bill, and those raised the ire of opposition MLAs, after they had an evening to digest the information.
The Doer government is proposing to give every party $1.25 per vote it receives -- a move that will bolster the struggling Manitoba Green Party and strengthen the Liberals.
That move mirrors one introduced recently in Ottawa, and it infuses hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into the bank accounts of political parties in order to liven up the political debate and give a voice to small parties.
And, the Doer government is raising election spending limits from roughly $1 million per party to about $1.3 million, depending on how many voters are on the list in 2011.
Since the New Democrats won significantly more votes than the Tories in last year's election, NDP party coffers will be much fatter -- about $200,000 fatter than Tory coffers -- when they cash in on the $1.25-per-vote scheme.
Meanwhile, Tory leader Hugh McFayden said election spending limits have conveniently increased.
"It's very crafty," McFadyen said. "They have created a perpetual advantage for the governing party."
However, Justice Minister Dave Chomiak said many of the changes reflect the advice of election officials and have to be taken as an entire package.
"If we were as Machiavellian and devious as we keep hearing then we would have cherry-picked," said Chomiak. "But we didn't."
Chomiak said the fairest way to offer parties an annual stipend is on a per-vote system, and he hinted that such a system will bolster the Grits, the party that usually steals votes from the NDP.
Outside of an election, the parties can also spend a little more on advertising.
Now the cap is $50,000 a year, which McFadyen has argued, besides being a pittance, amounts to an unconstitutional ban on free political speech.
In a non-election year, that cap will rise to $75,000. In an election year, like 2011, that cap rises to $150,000 but more types of advertising such as pamphlets and letters are included in the cap.
That will actually decrease the impact of the spending hike at a time when the government can still run almost unlimited ads about its programs and initiatives, McFadyen said.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
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