OPSEU supports getting “big money” out of municipal elections, the President of OPSEU told a legislative committee May 12.
“Let me say at the outset that we wholeheartedly support eliminating the influence of big money on municipal elections,” Thomas told the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. “If there is any organization in this province that has done and said more than OPSEU on the way big money corrupts government decisions, I haven’t heard of it.”
Thomas made the comments to the committee looking into Bill 181, the Municipal Elections Modernization Act, 2016. The union is in favour of banning corporate and union donations to political candidates in municipal elections, he said.
“Corporations as a group donate far more to political candidates than unions ever do,” Thomas said. “The positive effect of banning corporate donations will, we believe, be much greater than the negative effect of banning donations from democratic organizations like ours. On balance, it will lessen the impact of big money on elections. And that’s a deal I’ll take any day of the week.”
Read Thomas’s full remarks to the committee here.