CBRM mayor humbled by campaign contributions
SYDNEY — Two large individual contributions highlighted the list of campaign donations made to mayoral candidates in last October's Cape Breton Regional Municipality election.
Mayor Amanda McDougall, who defeated two-term incumbent Cecil Clarke by 3,530 votes, received a $20,000 donation from Annette Verschuren, a member of the Order of Canada and chancellor of Cape Breton University who is perhaps best known as the former president of Home Depot Canada and president and CEO of Michaels of Canada.
Clarke's largest single contribution was $10,000 from Glace Bay native and successful business person Irwin Simon, who is also the majority owner of the Sydneybased major junior hockey franchise, the Cape Breton Eagles.
All told, McDougall received $55,340, most of which came from 172 different contributors who each gave a minimum of $50. The Clarke campaign was the beneficiary of $91,750 (down slightly from the almost $100,000 he received in his successful 2016 re-election run), the bulk of which came from 89 donors who contributed $50 or more. Of the other four mayoral candidates, Chris Abbass reported contributions of $6,384 and John Strasser reported $3,700, while Archie MacKinnon and Kevin MacEachern recorded no donations of more than $50. The figures were recently released by the municipality.
Breaking down the numbers, McDougall noted that the majority of her contributors were individuals.
“When I look at the list of campaign contributions and I see the pages and pages of individuals who donated amounts that varied from $20 to $500 it tells me that we were successful in doing what we set out to do and that was connecting with individuals, that was the whole point,” said McDougall.
“It's really about bringing people together as best as possible. Obviously with COVID, we couldn't do that so we created spaces online such as the Q & A sessions and mailouts that were interactive. It worked. It clearly worked. People participated in the election by putting signs up in their windows but many also found a little bit of money because they found they could put their trust and faith in me by contributing to the campaign.”
In regard to Verschuren's generous donation, the new CBRM mayor said she is humbled by the support.
“Annette Verschuren is a woman I admire immensely,” said McDougall, who is a CBU graduate.
“She has been a personal mentor of mine for a number of years. She saw something in me, she showed faith in me. She has stood behind so many organizations, initiatives and people on this island so for her to have this much faith and trust in me to be a good candidate and leader means more than any dollar amount.
“Of course, her donation also allowed our campaign to really get moving. And I work hard every day to live up to the faith that Annette and others have put in me.”
Of the four re-elected CBRM councillors only Darren Bruckschwaiger reported individual contributions ($3,100). Earlene MacMullin, Steve Gillespie and Eldon MacDonald reported zero contributions of over $50.
Of the eight new councillors, only District 7's Steve Parsons reported zero donations. District 12's Lorne Green disclosed donations of $6,900, while District 6's Glenn Paruch was next with $2,600 followed by District 1's Gordon MacDonald with $1,387.