Accentuating the negative

It's bad enough that the Cons have as few useful ideas as they do. But it's all the worse when even the rare plan worth supporting is packaged in a way which makes it sound less worthwhile than it is. Which brings us to the Cons' planned legislation on political loans - and the decidedly negative message behind it:

The new legislation will:
- Ban corporations and unions from making political loans.
- Allow individuals to loan or provide loan guarantees only up to the amount of their $1,100 personal donation limit.
- Allow only banks, credit unions and such accredited financial institutions to make loans of more than $1,100, at commercial rates of interest. Parties or their riding associations will also be able to loan funds at commercial rates.

In the case of candidates in an election, the new law will make riding associations responsible for any unpaid loans.

But there will be no similar backstop for loans taken out by leadership contenders.

Now, it's hard to quibble with much in the plan itself. While there will be some room for debate in either direction as to what parties should be able to fund, on the balance there shouldn't be much room for disagreement with the idea that the loan loophole is one worth closing...as I've been pointing out since the Canadian Action Party first used it.

So the policy is a huge plus in and of itself. But the Cons' primary message - which has been taken up to at least some extent in the other blog posts dealing with the issue - is based on the premise that the plan is merely a means to embarrass the Libs for their recent leadership race, rather than a meaningful policy idea.

And that kind of message (which was unfortunately picked up to a lesser extent in Layton's response as well) can only poison the general perception of the policy on its own. Not only will the message encourage the Libs to oppose the legislation itself vociferously lest they be seen to agree with the Cons' criticisms, it will also make the legislation itself appear to be more of a partisan shot than anything worth pursuing on its own.

Of course, the good news is that the plan figures to become law before long. And the positive effects of the policy will hopefully far outlast the current politics surrounding it. But it has to be a bad sign that the Con government can't even introduce a meritorious policy without turning the announcement into another mudslinging opportunity.