From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   Taxpayer-paid salaries are not enough.  These premiers want more - from their   
   party supporters.  'Contribute to your party . . . .  contribute to a new   
   swimming pool for these dippers.'   
   ________________________________________   
      
   The Globe and Mail - April 27, 2016   
      
      
   Christy Clark received $277,000 since 2011 from B.C. Liberals   
      
      
   Only one other premier, Saskatchewan's Brad Wall, receives such a payment on   
   top of government salary   
      
   B.C. Premier Christy Clark has collected more than $277,000 from the   
   provincial Liberal Party since 2011 to top up her government salary, the party   
   disclosed Wednesday.   
      
   In addition to her $195,000 salary as Premier, Ms. Clark has received an   
   escalating annual amount from the Liberals – $50,000 for 2015 and this year.   
      
   The figures were released for the first time in response to a Globe and Mail   
   report on the Premier's stipend.  The practice puts British Columbia in   
   exclusive company: Only one other Premier receives such a payment.   
      
   In Saskatchewan, Brad Wall has collected about $37,000 from his Saskatchewan   
   Party every year since taking office in 2007, which tops up his government   
   salary of about $166,000.   
      
   Payments from parties were once more widespread but have declined over the   
   past decade due to tighter party finances and the passage of laws banning the   
   practice.   
      
   The revelation about Ms. Clark's extra payments follows Globe and Mail reports   
   that she has been appearing at small, exclusive fundraisers at which patrons   
   pay large amounts of money for access to the Premier.   
      
   While Ms. Clark has always reported in an annual disclosure statement that she   
   collects an allowance from her party, the dollar figure was not released until   
   this week, prompting a conflict complaint from the Official Opposition.   
      
   Ms. Clark said Wednesday that she did not disclose the amount earlier because   
   she had not been directly asked. "I would have happily disclosed it last year   
   if you had asked me."   
      
   NDP MLA David Eby, in a letter Wednesday to Conflict of Interest Commissioner   
   Paul Fraser, alleges the Premier is gaining a personal benefit from political   
   donations to her party.   
      
   "The laundering of donations through the party before they are passed to the   
   Premier cannot conceal the reprehensible activity that is taking place here   
   which has benefited the Premier in six figures," Mr. Eby wrote.   
      
   Ms. Clark said there is no connection between her party's fundraising success   
   and the amount of money she receives from the party, and dismissed Mr. Eby's   
   characterization that she is effectively collecting a commission on her   
   fundraising efforts for her    
   party.   
      
   "All kinds of people accuse me of all kinds of things," the Premier said.    
   \_(ツ)_/¯       
      
   Premiers in Quebec, New Brunswick and Alberta have abandoned the practice of   
   collecting money from their parties.  According to past statements made by   
   former Quebec premier Jean Charest, former New Brunswick premier Bernard Lord   
   and former Alberta    
   premier Alison Redford, the then-premiers collected additional pay because,   
   while they were remunerated by the public for running their provinces, as   
   leaders of their respective parties they were also entitled to a second salary.   
      
   In 2006, Mr. Lord defended the nearly $76,000 he collected from his party.   
   "There's absolutely nothing wrong with me receiving a salary from the PC Party   
   of New Brunswick as long as it is fully declared to the public, as it is   
   declared now," he said at    
   the time.   
      
   He would lose power later that year.   The province's new Liberal government   
   amended the conflict-of-interest act to prohibit the payments.   
      
   In Quebec, Mr. Charest, who was Premier from 2003 to 2012, collected an extra   
   $75,000 a year from his provincial Liberal Party on top of his official salary   
   of $182,717.   
      
   The special payments started in 1998 when he became party leader.  Mr. Charest   
   only confirmed the existence of the payments in 2008.  "I always thought it   
   was a private matter," he said.   
      
   Mr. Charest renounced the payments in 2010 and the Quebec legislature adopted   
   a code of ethics barring its members from receiving money from a political   
   party.   
      
   Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has never received money from her party and   
   neither did former Premier Dalton McGuinty, according to a spokeswoman for the   
   Ontario Liberals.  "[The party] has never been asked by our leader and has not   
   considered doing so,"    
   she said.   
      
   The leaders of Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party received payments from   
   1965 to 2015, according to the party's current executive director, Troy   
   Wason.  The payments were probably made to seven premiers beginning with Peter   
   Lougheed in 1971 and    
   ending with Jim Prentice last May, he said.   
      
   "This is a long-standing practice for 44 years, but I don't know the details,"   
   said Mr. Wason, who became director in the chaotic month after the party lost   
   power and was forced to fire all of its staff and close its offices.  "When I   
   took over, we didn'   
   t have enough money to rub together, so paying leaders – that's over."   
      
   With new fundraising rules that ban unions and corporations from donating to   
   parties, Mr. Wason does not believe the payments will be restarted.   
      
   Alberta Premier Rachel Notley does not collect a salary from the NDP,   
   according to her office.  However, she is reimbursed for some of the expenses   
   she incurs as party leader, receiving about $10,000 last year. Under Alberta   
   law, a party does not need to    
   disclose the amount of pay or reimbursements it gives a leader.   
      
   The current premiers of Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador   
   received no party money, according to their offices.   
      
   While the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador held   
   power from 2003 to 2015, party president Mark Whiffen said that being premier   
   is a high honour that comes with its own benefits.    "It has simply never   
   come up because it is not    
   part of our party political culture to pay a leader more than the public   
   salary," he told The Globe on Wednesday.   
      
   Since 1993, the B.C. Liberal Party has provided an allowance to its leader –   
   although the payment was supposed to be a temporary measure.  Party officials   
   say the amount has varied between $30,000 and $50,000. Rich Coleman, Deputy   
   Premier and a top    
   fundraiser for the party, told reporters the money compensates the leader for   
   the additional work they do on behalf of the party.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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