Two thoughts came to mind this morning as I read that Elections BC has fined the BCGEU, B.C.’s largest public sector union, $3.2 million for violating its gag law during the spring by-elections (BCGEU is appealing).

First, election gag laws are stupid. The CTF has long fought them, even threatening to take Elections BC to court when they hinted our 1996 balanced budget ads might have violated the Act somehow. We never heard about it again.

In his book Barbarians in the Garden City, former CTF B.C. Director Mark Milke wrote that the 1996 gag law “took away, temporarily, one of the few antidotes to the concentrated power that exists throughout Canada’s political system. Majority governments are virtual monarchies for up to five years and leaders wield immense control of that power via extreme caucus discipline. And where independent and spirited public debate is seldom seen (along with independent politicians), free speech—the last refuge of opposition—is even more critical.”

That said, the BCGEU is wrong to spend mandatory union dues on political ads. It’s unfair to their members who may support other parties, or who may simply want their union to stay out of politics all together. Campaign war chests should be an optional line item for union members to pay—not mandatory as it is now.