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hinjo Gombu. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Jun 1, 2006. pg. A.01
Local councillors in the suburban cities and towns bordering Toronto get the bulk of their campaign funds - in one case as high as 96.7 per cent - from corporate contributions, primarily from developers.
That's one finding of a study being released today by York University political science professor Robert MacDermid. It shows corporate contributions in 2003 in nine suburban municipalities is double what's given to Toronto councillors.
The most extreme case is Vaughan where 80 per cent of all money donated to politicians in the 2003 municipal elections came from corporations.
A detailed analysis of the money shows that across the 905 municipalities almost 70 per cent of all corporate contributions came directly from developers or companies that represented construction interests. In Toronto it's 44 per cent.
But don't be too quick to blame the corporations and the developers for hijacking or influencing council agendas in the 905 areas, MacDermid said.
They're simply filling a void left by individual citizens who don't appear to want to become involved in the political act of giving campaign contributions, he said.
"Citizens have a blame here," MacDermid said. "In their absence from politics both as voters and as contributors, business and development interests fill that void."
As a result their interests dominate in the 905 area where there is more land to be developed, he said.
The trend could hold for the November municipal elections because campaign finance laws have not changed.
The difference in the political cultural divide becomes more evident when the study looked at individual politicians. Almost 94 per cent of Vaughan Mayor Michael Di Biase's political contributions came from corporate interests. Just 21.1 per cent of Mayor David Miller's campaign donations came from corporations. Vaughan Councillor Peter Meffe's percentage of contributions from corporations was the largest at 96.7 per cent.
The voter apathy towards campaign giving is best illustrated in Whitby where only 25 people gave contributions of more than $100 each, despite having a population of about 55,000 people.
"That's a staggering level of non-participation in the funding of politics," MacDermid said.
Across the suburban municipalities of Ajax, Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, Oshawa, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Whitby only 1,590 individuals accounted for 15 per cent of all money. In Toronto, 11,192 people made up 55 per cent of all the money from individual donations.
The second major source of contribution in the suburbs after corporate and development interests were candidates who financed their own campaign, the study found.
Union funding, the study said was almost non-existent in the suburbs and played a minor role in the overall Toronto scene.
All this has again led to Ajax Mayor Steve Parish calling on the province to step in and reform campaign finance laws.
One reason Ajax has the second highest individual voter participation behind Toronto, said Parish, is they are the only municipalities to offer rebates for individual contributions.
In the case of Ajax, voters can get 75 per cent of the first $100 donated to a politician back and 50 per cent of the next $150 pack. The cap for rebates is $250.
In Toronto, the maximum permitted contribution to a candidate for councillor is $750 and $2,500 for a mayoralty candidate. Donors who contribute between $25 and $300, receive a rebate of 75 per cent. Rebates are calculated on a sliding scale for donations above $300 to a maximum of $1,000.
Starting this year, rebates in Toronto are available only for individual contributions. Unions and corporations will no longer receive rebates.
Parish said the province should legislate such laws across Ontario.
"It's a way to level the playing field," he said.
MacDermid's study, said Parish, is about "a subject area that is long overdue for factual analysis and for action by the province."
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