No need for municipal campaign finance rules, says Whitehorse's incoming mayor

It was a bit of small print at the bottom of Jean-Sébastien Blais's campaign signs: "Paid for by Dorothy Williams."

Blais, who ran for Whitehorse city council in this month's municipal election, didn't have to disclose that his wife paid for his signs. In fact, the city's municipal candidates don't have to report campaign contributions at all — something that's at odds with most other Canadian municipalities, and the territorial and federal governments.

"There's a need, I think, to increase the transparency," said Blais, adding that he thinks of it as an ethical obligation to voters.

Campaign finance transparency in municipal politics, however, has not been a widely-discussed issue in Whitehorse.

Meanwhile, this year's municipal candidates told CBC News their campaigns cost anywhere from about $50 to thousands of dollars, and the runner-up mayoral candidate says he was offered cash for favours. While many candidates said they ran their campaigns partly through donations, none were willing to give the names of donors.

The city's incoming mayor, however, doesn't believe Whitehorse needs to adopt some new election rules.

"I'm not seeing the need to be that regulated, when it comes to things like transparency. I'm not sure that's relevant," Kirk Cameron told CBC News.

Right now there are no rules around how much a Whitehorse municipal candidate can spend on a campaign, no limits on donations, and no need to tell anyone who is handing over cash to support candidates. 

CBC News asked several Whitehorse candidates after the election how much they spent on their campaigns. Of those, Cameron came out on top, saying he spent about $15,000 plus another $20,000 in in-kind donations, such as his campaign manager who worked for free. 

Cameron figures about half of the cash — or about $7,000 — he paid out of pocket. He says the rest came from donations from family, friends and corporations.

Cameron says he believes it's all fair and balanced as is, and that he had his own self-imposed rule when it came to several corporate donations he received. 

"I said to them, 'first of all, there's no disclosure rules, so you're private' … and I said I will set the limit on how much you contribute," Cameron told CBC.

"I wasn't letting them go to five, ten, $15,000. I was not prepared to accept those numbers. I capped it as whatever the highest private-sector contribution was. I thought, that's fair." He did not say what his self-imposed limit for corporate donations was.

The incoming mayor also acknowledged that those donors might later come knocking on his door. 

"It also puts me in a position where I can say to contributors, 'you contributed to a campaign that got me elected, let's talk if there are things you want to talk about that are important to the city,'" Cameron said.

'I'm one vote on council'

Cameron argues that because the mayor is just one of seven votes on council, there's little concern about donations and influence.

"I'm one vote on council and that's just the way this municipal system works. And I love it for that reason — because nobody can be taken to find themselves in anybody's pocket," he said.

Dan Bushnell is not so sure. He was the runner-up in this month's mayoral race, losing to Cameron by about 900 votes. 

Bushnell agrees with the incoming mayor in not seeing a need for rules around campaign funding, but for a very different reason. Bushnell says he's too cynical to think such rules would make a difference. 

"People find loopholes," he told CBC News.  

Bushnell was also candid about his own experience with would-be campaign donors. 

"They'd be like, 'need money for your campaign? Need money for signs? I have this zoning issue that I need consideration on,'" Bushnell recalled.

"I was just surprised at how blatant it was. It wasn't subtle, it was, 'I need consideration for this, I will donate to your campaign.'"

Bushnell said it happened three times, and served to confirm his cynical view of politics.  

"That goes against everything I believe in," he said, adding that he doesn't think he'll run again. 

As for his campaign, he says he paid about $3,500 out of pocket and also had some donations from supporters. 

'Not a trivial matter'

Andrew Sancton, professor emeritus and former director of the Local Government Program at the University of Western Ontario says municipal campaign financing is "not a trivial matter."

He says generally, the more transparency in municipal government, the better. 

Sancton says self-imposed limitations around donations don't hold much weight. He says citizens need to know what's going on at city hall and trust is a factor. That means municipalities should have rules about electoral financing which apply to all candidates equally. 

"It does add a level of bureaucracy to enforce them. Maybe they're a little more difficult to do in smaller places, but it's the norm in Canada to have rules about financial disclosure," he told CBC News. 

Sancton was surprised by Cameron's comments about being willing to meet with donors, and his argument that a municipal council can't be effectively influenced by campaign donors. 

"The mayor says that he only has one vote on council and that's absolutely right. He's not the prime minister. But if a particular contributor can contribute to one campaign, he or she can surely contribute to all the councillors, or a majority of the councillors," Sancton said.

Time for change, some say 

Eileen Melynychuk, one of the city's new councillors, leans towards wanting more scrutiny around funding. 

"I think Whitehosre is getting to the point where we are a big enough city that we should have some checks and balances in the campaign," she said. 

When asked about donations to her campaign, Melynchuk laughed.

"I did not get enough to cover the campaign, that's for sure," she said, adding that only a little more than half of her $6,000 campaign was covered by donations.

Melnychuk has run for public office before, which she thinks helped her to run a cost-efficient campaign this time. She also said that she set up a business account to track her campaign expenses as she might in a territorial election, short of making anything public. 

Anne Middler, another rookie councillor, would also like to see more transparency. 

"Sure, I'd like to know. I'm sure the electors would be interested in knowing as well," she said. 

Middler said her campaign cost about $1,500. She says she paid half, her parents donated $500, and friends made some smaller donations. 

Jean-Sébastian Blais, who ultimately came just shy of winning a seat on council, says his own campaign came to about $4,000 — most of which he paid himself, with the rest of the balance donated by a close friend. 

While Blais doesn't suggest there was any wrongdoing in this election, he still believes more openness is better for democracy. He also suggests spending caps for candidates, to keep a level playing field.

"If you don't know who monetarily supports the candidates, you have a good reason to ask those questions," he said.