Lamrock's you-lie-you-pay law gets mixed reviews

A Liberal leadership candidates proposal to offer election promise guarantees is getting mixed reviews from his main rivals.

Kelly Lamrock has said he'd pass a law topenalize political partiesthat break campaign promises once they're in power.

"Let's link lying your way into officeto the funding they get to run the next election," said Lamrock, aFredericton lawyer and former minister of social development.

Under Lamrock's "you-lie-you-pay" proposal, independent officials, such as the ombudsman or the auditor general would have the power to rule on whether a government has broken its commitments and reduce public funding the party receives as an election subsidy.

Former health minister Mike Murphy, another Liberal leadership candidate, has endorsed penalties for unkept promises.

Overly complicated

But two other rivals for the leadership contend Lamrocks law is an overly complicated idea and arent convinced it can work.

Nick Duivenvoorden, the former mayor of Belledune,said a simpler fix would be to be more honest with voters.

"I think they're quite prepared to hear not only what they would like to hear, but also what they need to hear," he said.

'If you make promises or you break promises, or you do something that the electorate doesn't like, you're going to be punished for it at the polls.' Brian Gallant, Liberal leadership candidate

"My policies will not be based on what we want to do over the next four years. It will be based on where we would like to be in 10 years."

Fellow candidate Brian Gallant, a Moncton-area lawyer, said there's already a penalty for breaking promisesthe next election.

"If you make promises or you break promises, or you do something that the electorate doesn't like, you're going to be punished for it at the polls," he said.

Gallant believes New Brunswickers are ready for more modest campaign platforms.

"People are going to politically reward politicians and parties who are going to be a lot more sensible, and who are going to make reasonable promises," he said.

Adversarial culture needs to change

Don Desserud, a political scientist who authored a report on how to fix the political process, said the key is to change the adversarial political culture that leads Liberals and Tories to outbid each other on the campaign trail.

Regulations wont solve the problem because any majority government will simply find a way around the kind of mechanism Lamrock is proposing, Desserud said.

"Although I think the intent is to try to increase the public's confidence in the electoral process, it could very well have the exact opposite effect," he said.

The Alward government has been criticized for breaking its promise on a property tax freeze for seniors.

Political parties receive an annual allowance based on how many votes they received in the previous election.

In 2011-12, the Progressive Conservatives received $181,397 from Elections New Brunswick based on their share of the vote. The Liberals, meanwhile, received $128,078, the NDP received $38,686, the Green Party received $16,943 and the Peoples Alliance received $4,363.