A major argument used by those who want to retain our FPTP electoral system is that we vote for MPs not parties. If this is true, there should be no donations of any kind allowed for political parties. None.

As the idea of effectively outlawing political parties does not sit well with many people, the highly partisan Mr. Flannigan included, the question should become, how do we make political participation fair? In the context of a  FPTP system, where a third of the population never gets effective representation, the per vote subsidy goes some small way to rebalancing this unfairness. Mr. Flannigan is not against the subsidy (or PR) because they are less fair than what we have now, but because he is a very, very partisan conservative. A column such as this, with its cloaked arguments, is the gold standard in hypocrisy.