By Amy Chen

A BC Liberal candidate has defended the millions of dollars his party receives from corporate donors claiming that big money in politics leads to good government.

“I’m worried about taking out philanthropists from the process,” Sam Sullivan, the incumbent for Vancouver-False Creek, said at an all candidate debate on Thursday. “They’re the ones who write big cheques for hospitals for universities, and they end being the ones who write big cheques for political parties.”

“These people donate money to parties because they want good government,” the form Mayor of Vancouver added. “And we need good strong parties, in my opinion, if you want to have good government.”

Big money in politics has emerged as a hot topic during the election campaign, with British Columbia being branded as the “wild west” of campaign finance, as there are no limits to how much large corporations and unions can donate provincial politicians.

A group of top corporate donors to the BC Liberals donated $56 million to the party over 12 years and received at least $15 billion of taxpayers’ money in return, according BC corruption watchdog IntegrityBC.

Premier Christy Clark’s party is also under RCMP investigation over allegations that the party’s donors may have broken the province’s Election Act after The Globe and Mail revealed that that lobbyists made individual donations to the BC Liberals on behalf of corporate clients, thereby hiding the origin of the donations.

Sullivan is in tight race with NDP’s transgender candidate Morgane Oger, who has been the target of a transphobic and homophobic flyer campaign.