Here in Canada, we have adopted new rules for party funding.

First off, donations to parties are now limited to C$1,000 per person a year, and companies and unions are barred from making donations.

Second, and this has been around for some time now, parties receive C$1.75 for each vote cast in their favour in a federal election. The Green Party of Canada, for example, even though it is not represented in the House of Commons, received over a C$1 million for the votes it got in the last federal election (January 2006).

For new upstart parties, this C$1.75 per vote system is a good way to get off the ground, but generally I believe that parties should sustain themselves on donations from supporters and members. This would also create an incentive for parties to listen to their grassroots (which the Conservative Party of Canada has been doing, but the Liberal Party continues to silence the grassroots voices - as a result, the Tories have full coffers, while the Liberals are scraping the bottom of the barrel).