Hat tip to Daveberta for posting a link to this story in the Calgary Herald.There are three things I'd like to see fixed. Campaign finance, political parties, and the electoral process. I focus on provincial and federal politics because, despite the best efforts of my political science professors, I find it difficult to care about municipal politics.Naheed Nenshi evidently doesn't share my affliction. He cares about Calgary municipal politics, and when people ask him what he'd like to fix about the city, his #1 answer is campaign finance. Because there's only one rule of campaign finance in Calgary: "There are no rules."People hear "campaign finance reform" and think "who cares." It almost never comes up in conversation, not even among political types. If someone like me brings it up, political types will nod their heads and say "yes, of course." They don't feel any passion for it, and they don't understand why people like me do.The reason we feel passionately is because massive campaign donations are a drug to which our body politic is addicted. Because you did it before, you have to do it again. Eventually, where you're getting your next hit becomes more important than everything else.We don't want to kick the habit out of some moral outrage, though there are principles being violated (democratic rights are for people, not for money). No. We want to kick the habit because we care so much about everything that we could accomplish if we were clean.You care about urban sprawl? That's why I care about campaign finance.You care about environmental protection? How much money does the environment donate?You care about poverty? That's why I care about campaign finance.It affects everything else we might want to do. It's not sexy. It's not easy. And it won't be pretty. Kicking a habit never is. But never let yourself think it's not crucially important.Never let yourself think that.