[Devils'Advocate]

"anybody who works should be able to contribute close to that amount".

Typical well-off Albertan thinking. I was talking to my (working) cousin back east in Halifax last week who was trying to decide whether to get his aching tooth fixed or get his car's brakes fixed. There was the article in the paper last week about a 79 year old man that retired when he was 60 out shoveling driveways because his fixed income pension didn't keep up with electricity and food prices. This thinking that everyone can afford $1,000 is crap. The people that can afford to pay $1,000 a year to a political party are those that are going to get represented in parliament.

You are right about volunteering time. However, from the knocking on doors that I have done in my day, you end up spending most of your time talking to people who have already made up their mind on who they are going to vote for and just want to shoot the breeze. There really isn't any competition for mass media. And mass media costs money.

P.S. - I don't think political parties should have "work hard for their money". I think they should work hard at meeting their mandate. I hate that politicians have to have these big fund-raising dinners with the who's-who of the business community to keep their campaign hopes going. They should be putting that time in at the office working towards solutions to our problems.