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When Premier John Horgan was asked during the election campaign if B.C. taxpayers would be forced to finance political parties, his answer was plain enough.

“Just to be clear,” CHNL radio host Shane Woodford asked Horgan. “There is going to be nothing in there about taxpayers having to fund political parties?”

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“That’s correct,” Horgan responded.

“What we propose is that Elections B.C. will look across the country and around the world at the best ways to make sure only individuals are paying for our political process. That’s what we’re going to do.”

That commitment now lies in shambles.

On Monday, the Horgan government introduced a new political financing law that will directly funnel roughly $27.5 million of taxpayers’ money to political parties over the next four years.

The governing NDP-Green alliance called it “a transitional allowance” to help political parties wean themselves off corporate, union and foreign donations, which are banned under the new law.