Donations boost Kenney’s war chest
Calgary MP could play rainmaker
Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney used events in suburban Toronto last year to collect large contributions to his Calgary riding association from donors in ethnic communities, amassing a war chest that could help curry favour with other Conservative MPs.
Kenney — a presumed leadership hopeful should Stephen Harper leave the top job — attended a private fundraising party in the home of a Scarborough businessman on Sept. 13, 2012, and the following night was the featured speaker at a dinner hosted by the Conservative MP in Richmond Hill, Ont.
The money from the two events flowed back to Kenney’s Calgary Southeast Conservative riding association, which recorded 66 contributions totalling $46,000 from Toronto-area donors over the two days.
At the time, Kenney was in the GTA on the government’s expense, as part of a six-day trip that also took him to Saint John, N.B., and Thunder Bay, Ont. — a $3,014 excursion paid for by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Kenney’s official business in Toronto included a speech at the Bloor West Ukrainian Festival and a meeting with the Iranian Canadian Congress to discuss closure of the Canadian embassy in Tehran, according to a travel summary on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website.
It is unclear why the donors at the events were asked to write cheques to a riding association 2,700 kilometres away, instead of just making them payable to the local riding or the Conservative Party of Canada.
Kenney’s office referred an inquiry about the donations to the riding association.
“As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s not uncommon for electoral district associations (EDAs) to accept donations from eligible donors across the country,” said riding association president Patrick Donnelly in an email Friday.
“In Calgary Southeast, we have received such donations since Mr. Kenney was first elected. We fully comply with Elections Canada rules governing all donations and fundraising.”
The Conservative association in Kenney’s riding is one of the wealthiest in the country, pulling in $196,000 in contributions in 2012, a non-election year. It had $315,000 in the bank at the end of the year.
The association has little apparent reason to build up such a large fund for an election two years away that Kenney is almost certain to win easily.
But by collecting the cash in Toronto and shipping it to Calgary, Kenney can play power broker as his association transfers money to help MPs in other ridings, potentially bolstering his standing in the party.
Though Kenney could not use the money for a leadership campaign, Elections Canada rules allow riding associations to shuttle money back and forth to other associations or candidates, or transfer cash to the federal party.
Kenney’s association did just that during the 2011 election campaign, sending $146,000 to Conservative riding associations and candidates across the country, including those in Etobicoke, Ont., Esquimalt, B.C., and Guelph, Ont.
The association also uploaded $130,000 to the federal party in the month before the election.
Last fall, Kenney’s association took in more cash when Toronto mortgage broker Egbert Felix and his wife Rosemary hosted a private party for the then-citizenship and immigration minister at their home in the Agincourt area of Scarborough.
“We were just supporting his riding because he was someone who has been with us in terms of helping us and getting stuff done,” Felix said.
The party brought in $22,800 for the riding association and all but two of the 22 donations that flowed back to Calgary were of either $1,000 or the maximum legal $1,200.
Most of the donors had family names that appear to be Sri Lankan and most were from the Markham or Scarborough areas.
The event was attended by “a bunch of business associates that I have done business with in the past,” said Felix.
The following night, Richmond Hill Conservative MP Costas Menegakis hosted “A Special Evening with Minister Jason Kenney” in his riding, later claiming that 600 were in attendance.
Contributions from 44 people, almost all with Chinese surnames, brought in $22,798.
That’s nearly as much as the $25,498 the federal Conservative Party’s powerful fundraising machine raked in that day in all donations from across the country.
The uneven amounts of the donations, which ranged from $275.54 to $734.49, suggest the costs of putting on the Richmond Hill event were deducted from the amount that accrued to the riding association.
There is no record of any donations made to Menegakis’s Richmond Hill riding association on that date.