Chretien brought in an unpopular, but very effective, way of publicly funding political parties. It took away corporate and union donations and limiting single donations to a very small amount. It worked very well at minimal cost to taxpayers, but Harper got rid of it.
I think Harper was of the opinion that money should do the talking in politics. I think that’s still the CPC position and also the Liberal position these days.
I looked at my the list of political donations to my local city counselor. It was filled with people connected to real estate development. I guess when housing developers want to obtain the green light to develop more land for it pays to grease the palms a bit. Donations were limited too but CEOs would put donations through all their family members.