The 2008 Presidential elections are posed to be the biggest spending election in the history of the United States, and likely the world. Over $2.4 billion USD has already been spent in this election, luckily, there is only a few hours left for the spending.
The commercial is thought to have cost his campaign more than £2 million as the presidential election hits a record 2.4 billion dollars (£1.5bn), according to the non-partisan Centre for Responsive Politics - by far the most expensive in history.
That money buys a lot of airtime, commercials and infomercials alike. I am glad our last election was only 5 weeks long, that was long enough. I am not sure I could handle Stephen Harper, his sweater vest, and a cat or two in a 30 minute long infomercial.
Obama has raised more money, from more people then any other presidential candidate in history.
One one hand I am glad that Canada has election financing laws like we do, the three leading parties only spent about 18 million each. Even if you multiple by 10 (taking into rough account the population difference) we are still much less then a billion in total campaign expenses.
On the other hand, my libertarian streak is annoyed at the government telling people what they can and cannot with their own money. It is a touch balancing act.
So, does anyone have any opinions on this? Should private Canadian citizens be allowed to donate as much as they wish to the political party(ies) of their choice? Tell me what you think.
3 comments:
All those who think they will get "change" with the Obamassiah are going to get a big surprise after the honeymoon phase is over. He is so indebted to so many individuals and big corporations that it will be business as usual before long. He is simply owned by to many special interests.
Limiting contributions is a great way to keep politicians within the realm of reality.
peter, good points. But what about individuals? Should the government tell me what to do with my money?
don't mind opening up donation limits (the $1000 we have presently does seem kind of low). The only caveat I would require is full public disclosure of who donates what.
The problem down in the states is about 1/2 of the donations Obama received were by people who listed their name as something that sounds like it came right out of a Bart Simpson crank call (ie. I.C. Weiner). Election laws have obviously been broken, but it's not being reported.
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