Winnipeg, November 28, 2008
For immediate release

Reported in Thursdays Winnipeg Free Press the Opposition parties are calling the Tory plan to end political-party subsidies “a declaration of political war.” “Why is it only now that opposition parliamentarians are in an outrage?” says Jim Hnatiuk the newly elected leader of the Christian Heritage Party (CHP). “The subsidy was introduced five years ago and the CHP and other smaller parties have been fighting the unfairness of that legislation since that time.”

In 2003 all registered political parties were banned from accepting donations from corporations and unions and the subsidy was introduced to offset the losses the parties incurred.

Remarkably the legislation did not allow for the smaller registered parties to benefit from the subsidy even though the ban for receiving funds included all registered parties.

Hnatiuk, speaking from Winnipeg, explained, “The CHP and other smaller registered parties have not received any funding from this subsidy. But now, because there is the potential that the larger parties will lose the subsidy, Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin reportedly says, “This is outrageous. “And Winnipeg MP, Anita Neville, suggests it’s a Conservative attempt to bankrupt the Liberals.”

Hnatiuk asks, “Where have these MPs been for the last five years? It’s only now, with Flaherty’s decision to cancel this self-serving tax grab, that the other large parties are outraged. It’s only when it starts hurting their own pocket books.

Outrageous? It is outrageous for our Parliamentary representatives to develop such passion only when they stand to lose access to funds arbitrarily taken from our tax dollars.

Finally getting rid of this subsidy is a good idea; but it doesn’t provide, as some Tory advocates claim, “a level playing field”.

“A trulylevel playing field would be obtained by implementing the CHP’s proposal for a checkoff on income tax forms, allowing all taxpayers to decide who gets their $2. That would take the allocation of taxpayers’ funds out of the hands of the MPs altogether, and give it to the taxpayers – where it belongs.

Source: http://www.chp.ca/en/news/news_2008-11-28.html

Category: National CHP News
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