It's so principled it's diabolical

A while ago, when it looked like the Liberals were really heading for a shellacking, I theorized that the reason the Tories had dropped their previous commitment to abolish the $1.75 per vote "allowance" the political parties are paid out of public funds (other than the obvious) was that they wanted to keep the $34-million-in-debt Liberals "on life support," the better to split the left-of-centre vote with the NDP. But now that the Liberals have escaped with their electoral skins intact, perhaps it will occur to the Tories to revisit this issue. This is one of those times where the high-minded, public-interest case -- political parties should be funded by individuals giving of their own free will -- lines up perfectly with the cynical, self-interested case: the Grits are toast without it. I love it when that happens!