Municipal Elections and the Corporate Vote

Corporation and election procedure relates to representational value of unity of administrative policies in true sense of assertions and dexterity evaluation law in voting system for transparency stating no taxation without representation in legal foundations of law in independent status under principles.The entire corporatisation theme is related here in great effect of opinion.

No Taxation without Representation is a policy in commerce systems of calculations and data governance in associational value and terms and conditions as well.Thus representational value is always on the right button for progressive evolutionary t theory in commercial law which has become a trend in public administration as well in UPSC fulcrum of studies.

Mr Bonney, I appreciate your comments relating to the hard work and importance of small businesses within our economy and for our communities. However, the issue of giving business owners or business the right to vote should not be framed in a question of who pays more or less taxes. A homeless man or woman on the street who doesn't work and does not financially add to our economy has just as much of a right to vote in an election as a CEO of a multimillion dollar company. The right to vote in based on citizenship. This recognizes that any individual is a member of our society and has a voice to influence the decisions being made. As you have mentioned small and medium sized business make up over 50% of the private work force. If they are truly being over taxed I think you have a great voting base and platform to makes some moves in your municipality to shake up city council. James McNish Undergraduate of Political Science SFU

Giving anything other than living, breathing people a vote devalues the role of living people in democracy, which is beyond unacceptable. Corporations ARE NOT people - people create corporations, people operate corporations - and people ARE NOT corporations. The notion that you should be able to vote more because you pay more taxes is not even vaguely democratic - it is a hard-line fascist practice.

Perhaps a corporation is akin to a person in the eyes of the law, however that does not make a corporation a person in the eyes of the people. If we state that not allowing corporations to vote is a form of discrimination due to to the fact that corporations are a class of people then we are ignoring the essence of being human. Corporations are not a class of people for they can not truly be human and to treat them as such would be to invite the courts to allow a group which has far more power than any person to have the only thing which empowers a true person to stand against such powers, the vote. If we allow this then we not only disregard our charter of rights and freedoms as Canadians, we also stand in favor of allowing that which can not be considered human to have all the power of a human, and why do this when members of corporations have already got the power to vote.

Well, remember that in the eyes of the law a corporation is essentially a person. He (it) pays taxes (higher ones) and has all the responsibilities of a citizen. Not allowing this class of people to have a vote is akin to a class system where only some kinds of people get rights and privileges. Maybe, if this kind of discrimination is fair, other kinds of discrimination are fair as well? Or maybe, if this class of people (corporations) are not going to be allowed the primary right of a vote they should be exempt from taxes?

No. The business owners would have already or would vote in their own locality.

NO! The charter of rights and freedoms specifically states that one must be a citizen to vote. While I will not state that if we open the doors of democracy to business's we will replace democracy with corporatism, we will be flying in the face of the charter of rights and freedoms. This action will also pave the way for greater change, once the charter has been ignored without officially being altered we will have essentially dis-empowered it, and will be opening our democracy to non citizens. If you can not understand the consequences of this then please consider what would happen if corporations had voting rights in Canada and compare the number of corporations world wide to the number of citizens. The numbers will not be in favor of the people...

This is a really tough question. Up until I read the reasoning for the corporate vote, I would have said I'm dead against it. People vote. Corporations aren't people, so they can't vote. However, there is a valid point. Many small and medium size business owners live in one municipality and run a business in another. They pay taxes to both municipalities. In fact, they probably pay much higher taxes to the municipality they don't live in, because businesses are disproportionately taxed on the municipal level. Those business owners currently have no representation in the municipality they do business in. Perhaps the question is worded a little incorrectly. It shouldn't be "Should businesses again be allowed a vote in B.C. municipal elections?" rather it should be "Should business owners be allowed a vote in B.C. municipal elections?" Clearly "no taxation without representation" is what's at the heart of the question. Businesses pay tremendously high property taxes but many have no say at all in what their municipal council decides. The current system flies in the face of that theory. So yes, I think small and medium size business owners (who do not have a vote in the municipality in which they do business) should definitely have the right to vote.

Yes, the BC government should give businesses one vote in municipal elections. Up until 1993, B.C. small businesses could vote in municipal elections. This ability to vote recognised the contribution small and medium sized businesses make to the economy and to our communities. The decision to rescind the business vote was an historic mistake that must be corrected. Like the Boston Tea Party, it’s an issue of taxation without representation. B.C.’s small businesses are being taxed to the breaking point by municipal governments. Businesses pay on average three and up to seven times more property tax than a resident on same value property. In Vancouver, a resident paid $3,870 on an average residential property worth $941,999 in 2008. A business owner paid $18,973 — over five times more—on the same value property. To add insult to injury, businesses pay for their garbage collection on top of that. Yet a January 2007 study by the City of Vancouver shows that businesses use only 24% of municipal services while residents use 76%. If residents were taxed like businesses, there would be a tax revolt. Over-taxed and under-represented, small and medium sized businesses are the backbone of B.C.’s economy. They account for 98% of all businesses and 34% of our gross domestic product. 82% have fewer than five employees and together they employ 56% of B.C.’s private-sector workforce. Many small business owners work over 60 hours a week. Many take very personal risks like mortgaging their homes or taking out loans against RRSPs in order to start, expand or keep staff employed in tough circumstances. In the recent recession, businesses with 1 – 19 employees only laid-off .5% of their staff compared to businesses with more than 500 employees that laid-off 8.8%. The next time you drive by a soccer field or baseball diamond think about the small business that likely donated the children’s uniforms. In many cases, the teams coach has more than likely been let off early by a Vancouver business owner to help teach our kids or is possibly a small business owner themselves. Small business owners take tremendous personal risks that drive the economy and benefit society in general. So how can we get municipal governments to recognize this vital contribution? The answer lies in a well-established principle—no taxation without representation. If municipalities are going to tax small businesses to the hilt, fairness requires we grant business owners the vote. Robin Blencoe repealed the business vote in 1993 claiming that it removes the possibility of people simply leasing parking spots and storage lockers to vote. Blencoe’s flippancy was just one indication of how decision-makers overlook the concerns of small businesses. In London, England, the birthplace of our democracy, businesses have a number of votes based on their number of employees. CFIB suggests every business would qualify for one vote only, whether they own, lease or rent their premises, just as residents qualify regardless of whether they own, lease or rent a home. In B.C. the business right to vote in municipal elections was removed. This decision reflected widespread ignorance about small businesses owners - the risks they take, their importance to the economy, their contributions to society, their heavy tax burden and their lack of representation. Business owners deserve fair representation. The only thing that will start to grant them representation with their municipal tax masters is restoration of the municipal business vote. Brian Bonney is Director of Provincial Affairs, BC for Canadian Federation of Independent Business CFIB is a non-profit, non-partisan business association that seeks to give small independent business a greater voice when it comes to government decision making. ______________________________ Brian Bonney Canadian Federation of Independent Business CFIB Director of Provincial Affairs, BC CFIB – Powered by Entrepreneurs

your question really is should be "Should we eliminate democracy and replace it with corporatism?" or possibly ""Should we begin to eliminate democracy by weakening it with gradual corporatism?"