NDP raised over $2m in six months in 2018
Liberals to focus on smaller donations
VICTORIA — B.C.’s governing New Democratic Party finished 2018 ahead of its opponents in political fundraising, despite new rules it implemented that ban corporate and union donations.
The NDP raised almost $2.05 million between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2018, according to new figures released Monday by Elections B.C. In comparison, the Opposition B.C. Liberals raised $1.69 million and the B.C. Greens raised almost $439,000 in the same period.
The government passed legislation in 2017 that forbade corporate and union donations to political parties and set a cap on maximum personal donations of $1,225 a year. The NDP argued that massive political donations by corporations to the previous Liberal government, as well as union donations to the NDP, were a distorting influence on politics in the province.
The ban also came with a per-vote government financial assistance program for political parties.
In total in 2018, the NDP earned almost $5.3 million in funding, the Liberals $4.4 million and the Greens $1.5 million, including all of its fundraising efforts and government financial assistance.
Another government payment was made Jan. 1, 2019, adding $373,827 for the Greens, $894,968 for the NDP and $896,843 for the Liberals.
“The B.C. NDP continues to rely on individual donors, in fact we have a larger pool of donors who give smaller amounts,” said NDP strategist Glen Sanford. “And I think that reflects the nature of the party that we are, and the government we’re providing.”
Governing parties often enjoy an advantage in fundraising, due to the appeal of contributors getting to meet with powerful cabinet ministers and the premier. Sanford said he doesn’t think that is reflected much, because the party has always maintained a healthy grassroots base.
For the B.C. Liberals — who are still paying off campaign loans from the 2017 election — the report shows the Liberals tightening the fundraising gap in the second half of the year, said executive director Emile Scheffel.
“Another really interesting piece that jumps out is we actually beat the NDP on the category of contributions greater than $250, but they smoked us again on donations smaller than $250,” said Scheffel. “What that says is we have work to do overall. Where we’re going to focus that work is on smaller donations.”
Scheffel said the Liberals “effectively paused” fundraising in the party strongholds of the Okanagan, central interior and northern B.C. during the summer wildfire months of July and August. But Scheffel said they have made up for it with $300,000 recorded in January alone.
The B.C. Greens trumpeted the numbers as part of “the best fundraising year for the B.C. Green party outside of an election year,” said spokesman Stefan Jonsson. “We raised 21 per cent of what the B.C. NDP raised and 26 per cent of what the B.C. Liberals raised,” said Jonsson. “With just three MLAs compared to 41 and 42, we feel we are doing a great job. We’re out-fundraising, relatively speaking, the other two parties.”
Jonsson said the fundraising stats are a better sign of the Green’s health than the recent vote decline in the Nanaimo byelection.
All parties appeared to show fundraising benefits from the fall proportional representation campaign and the lead-up to the Nanaimo byelection.
The uncertain future of the minority NDP government also means it’s unclear when the next election might be, and all parties say they are walking a tightrope between asking donors for contributions to prepare their campaign war-chests and burning out contributors with constant requests.