QUEBEC - Jean Chretien took aim Monday at Stephen Harper's pledge to kill public subsidies for political parties -- warning it would benefit richer parties and hurt the poorer ones.
The former Liberal prime minister was asked by a reporter how his party would fare if Harper follows through on his election promise to end the per-vote financing.
"I don't see why we're going to do away with this," Chretien said in Quebec City.
"And who will this benefit? It will benefit those who have the most money. Suppose the poor wanted to have a political party, they wouldn't have the means to do it."
Chretien's government introduced the subsidies in the wake of corruption scandals, with an aim to reducing graft and donor influence.
He said slashing the allowance could give Canada a system that resembles the one in the United States, where parties must raise billions to fund a campaign.
"Here, we have a system where the serious parties are subsidized," Chretien said.
The Liberals, NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green party depend more on these funds than the Conservatives, who have a considerably bigger donor base than their rivals.
Harper has been so determined to stop this cash flow that he almost lost his government over it in December 2008.
Opposition parties, who strongly support these subsidies, fought back with plans to form a coalition, triggering a parliamentary crisis in the House of Commons.
The allowance, which works out to roughly $2 per vote, pumped a total of $27.4 million in public money last year to the five qualifying federal parties.
To obtain the subsidy, a party must garner two per cent of the popular vote across Canada, or five per cent of the votes in all the ridings that featured one of their candidates on the ballot.
Chretien also spoke Monday about the wave of NDP support that swept Quebec in last week's election.
He said he was surprised voters elected a New Democrat candidate who didn't even campaign, referring to Berthier-Maskinonge MP-elect Ruth Ellen Brosseau.
Brosseau won her seat even though she spent a week of the campaign vacationing in Las Vegas and never set foot in the riding.
Chretien joked about all the hands he had to shake and all the plates of pork-and-beans he was forced to eat in Quebec during the early days of his 40-year political career.
"You had to meet with people," he said.
"I would've have liked that -- being in Las Vegas and waiting to be elected.
"But it didn't happen that way."
