Your money, their campaign team

Without completely spoiling my final post on the NDP's response on per-vote party financing, the largest issue seems to me to be the need for the NDP to actually challenge the Cons' idea of populism to shift votes, rather than signalling agreement and thereby validating the Cons' message. And it's a huge plus to see that's exactly what the NDP is doing in linking party funding to the Cons' (and Libs') blatant Senate patronage:

NDP campaign chief Brad Lavigne, who was showing off the party’s election headquarters Monday, noted that Senate appointments give the other parties “taxpayer-sponsored, full-time fundraisers, full-time campaign directors.”

His salary is paid for by party membership fees; his rivals, however, earn taxpayer dollars. “That’s an unfair subsidy,” Mr. Lavigne said. “I’d like to take that up with people and see how they feel about that.”

Indeed, it is a common practice for governing parties to reward their campaign strategists with Senate seats. Stephen Harper is no exception, despite his vow to see senators elected.

The Prime Minister appointed his fundraising guru, Irving Gerstein, to the Red Chamber. As well, he put his long-time campaign director, Doug Finley – whose wife, Diane, is the Human Resources Minister – into the chamber. Ditto for his communications aide, Carolyn Stewart-Olsen in the chamber.

The Liberals do the same. David Smith, who served as campaign director for Jean Chrétien and Stéphane Dion, is in the Senate; he was appointed in 2002 by Mr. Chretien.
...
“It’s not just the public financing, which we think has leveled the playing field. It’s taken big money out of politics and it’s led ... to less corruption,” Mr. Lavigne said. “Most of the developed world has some form of it but I know that most of the developed world doesn’t have a taxpayer-sponsored chamber like the Senate where full-time fundraisers and full-time campaign directors sit.”