By Terry Vanderheyden
TORONTO, December 15, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The provincial Liberal government has passed a law fixing the date of the next and every subsequent election for the first Thursday in October every fourth year – October 4, 2007, is then the date for the next Ontario election.
Prior to this, elections in the province had to be held within five years, but the exact timing was left to the party in power. This meant that a party could hold an election at any time they felt their popularity was highest in the polls.
New Democrat Party critic Peter Kormos expressed his concern over another measure introduced by the Liberal minister responsible for electoral reform, Marie Bountrogianni, which requires that political donations over $100 made to a party or a leadership candidate be reported online within 10 days of being received.
Kormos called the measure “a loophole so big you can drive a Mack Truck through it,” because donations can be re-routed to a riding association without any record of the donation whatsoever. As reported by the CP, Kormos added, “So riding associations – all 103 of them across the province – can be used by their respective political parties to receive huge amounts of contributions without the need to disclose a single penny of it. That is shameful on the part of a government that is trying to deceive the public in that manner.”