Cold call campaign pushes for end to cash for access fundraising
Posted April 16, 2017 9:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The controversy over cash-for-access political donations is one of the issues dogging the BC Liberals ahead of the May election. Now it’s about to burn up their phone lines.
Organizers of a new telephone campaign aim to end the practice.
It’s as simple as heading to the Call4Change.ca website and entering your postal code which will connect you with someone running in your riding.
“So you receive your first candidate, you make your phone call, you speak to someone or leave a message, and then you can click to go on further,” explains community activist Randy Helten, one of the organizers.
Callers are given a prepared script that they can use to tell candidates they want a ban on corporate and union donations as well as a cap on individual ones too.
Helten points to research that has determined old-fashioned phone calls are actually more effective at influencing politicians than emails or social media.
“More than just sending an email or retweeting something, to actually make a phone call and use your voice, directly to the candidate, it feels like a bit more power there.”
He says politicians need to be reminded, this is not an issue that will go away anytime soon, “and it’s really time to take some action and get some legislation in place.”
Call4Change bills itself as a non-partisan, grassroots initiative.
