Liberals out-fundraise opponents

Governing party raised more than all other political parties in 2016

The governing Liberal party of P.E.I. raised more money than all three other political parties combined last year.

Elections P.E.I. has released the financial contributions for 2016 for the four registered political parties on Prince Edward Island.

The Liberal party raised a total of $403,423 from individual and corporate donors, including some big businesses from outside of Prince Edward Island. This was more than twice the amount raised by the Opposition Progressive Conservative party, which raised $173,365 last year.

The biggest donor to both the Liberal and PC parties was the Charlottetown law firm Cox & Palmer. The firm gave $6,230 to the governing Liberals and $5,900 to the PC party. Other big donors include construction companies, including J.C. Drilling Inc. from Wellington, which gave $5,095 to the Liberals and Vercat Construction from Tignish, which gave $3,069 to the PC party. Bell Canada was within the top five biggest donors category for both parties, giving $4,380 to the Liberals and $3,218 to the Tories.

Consulting firms, banks, law and accounting firms and local businesses were also generous with their cash to the two main political parties in P.E.I.

Meanwhile, the NDP and Green parties both raised the majority of their funds from smaller donations under $250. The NDP raised a total of $25,173, including two big donations from the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The Green party, which does have one seat in the P.E.I. legislature, raised $21,690 in 2016. It is the only political party in P.E.I. that does not accept corporate donations, so all of its fundraising came from individual donations, with no one donating more than $1,100.

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker has been calling for more limits to campaign and political financing on the Island.

Currently, Prince Edward Island is one of only three provinces in Canada with no limits to political contribution amounts. P.E.I. also allows any individual, corporation or trade union to give money to P.E.I. political parties, even if they are from an outside jurisdiction.

Last year, Premier Wade MacLauchlan announced he would eliminate political donations from corporations, businesses and unions entirely and place a cap on donations from individuals of $1,500 a year.

He also promised public consultations on campaign finance in the summer of 2016.

But no consultations were held, and six months later, MacLauchlan backtracked on this promise, saying he will continue to allow corporate donations and, instead, impose a cap of $3,000 for businesses, individuals and unions.

To date no actual legislative changes have been made.

During the recent spring sitting of the legislature, Bevan-Baker took MacLauchlan to task over reversing his plan to ban corporate donations. He accused the Liberal and PC party leaders of “colluding” on this decision.

“A quick scan of the political donations would expose why both the premier and the leader of the Opposition would be happy to collude on such a turnaround,” Bevan-Baker said on May 3.

“Corporate donations to both parties are counted in the hundreds of thousands of dollars every years, accounting for the majority of party revenues.”

The list of party donors released Thursday by Elections P.E.I. shows both parties continue to benefit greatly from corporate cash.