To the editor:
Re: “NDP drags Anton into civic eletion spending debate,” 12th & Cambie, April 11.
Thank you for your coverage of the legislative debate on the out-of-control municipal election campaign donation system in Vancouver. Vancouver city council has formally asked the B.C. Liberal government six times since 2008 for the power to restrict election campaign donations and spending, and yet the B.C. Liberal government still refuses to act.
Your article properly notes the absence of Vancouver Fraserview MLA, and current Attorney General, Suzanne Anton from this debate. Strangely though, it suggests that my colleague MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert and I “dragged” Ms. Anton into the debate in a way that “wasn’t related to her current job.”
Ms. Anton is a B.C. Liberal MLA elected in Vancouver. She is the chief law officer for the province, and one of just two Vancouver MLAs in the B.C. Liberal cabinet that has refused to fix this problem.
Ms. Anton also has the distinction of having received the largest single municipal campaign election donation in provincial history: $960,000.
As a former mayoral candidate, she knows this issue personally, and now is uniquely positioned to do something about it.
Aside from the B.C. Liberal government dragging their feet, there’s no other dragging going on — the inexplicable inaction of Ms. Anton and her cabinet colleagues are already at the heart of this debate.
David Eby,
NDP MLA, Vancouver Point Grey
