Tory Financial Affairs Update

Ok the rumble is coming soon, first was Financial Affairs Update of the Conservative Party by Irving Gerstein! (the banker Irving referred to earlier in the opening night ceremonies that was supposedly referenced in Dion's resignation speech).

Here's a rundown on his report:

– Since Diefenbaker there have been the ‘best of times, and the worst times’, for the party, sometimes they needed an umbrella.

-but currently the party is ‘very solvent and in pretty good financial shape’. The bottom line is that the party is in compliance with its banking arrangements

-they spent the max on a $20 million campaign, not including the pre-writ spending they did. They’ll get approximately $10 million back for writ expenditures, and then they will have cash in the bank and have no debt.

-This is good news and the fact that the Liberals have been stifled with a large debt makes this even better news he says.

-In the Conservative party, they’ll be debt free but will do so without asking for transfers from local campaigns. In fact, the nat’l party has given minimum $4 million to local campaigns.

-The Tory’s must grow their grassroots donation base, as the Liberal leadership race will be a temporary quick fix for their fundraising efforts.

-The Conservatives have paid off $4 million in initial debt and have funded 3 elections, paid for daily operating expenses and invested in party infrastructure and have conducted pre writ advertising campaigns which even Liberal Dion has said are effective (much to the applause and snickers of delegates ) and have given $4 million to local debt, all with cash in the bank, are debt free and are ready for the next election.

-they raised $14.8 million vs. the $3.6 million the Liberals did in the first 3 quarters which not “just a small difference, but gigantic”

-Irving says yes they spent quite a bit of money, but it was worth it as they were “successful” during the election and won it (not as successful as they hoped, obviously)

- Irving complained that Elections Canada counted their paid fundraising efforts as campaign expenses. This was followed by boos and Irving says "yes boo Elections Canada!" Wonderful, they are back to form I see. Obviously still touchy that Elections Canada could rule at any time they broke the law in the 2006 election.

-Their campaign tools: they use direct voter identification pools to help get donors and members, they conduct “data mining”, segmentation, and data manage to move supports up the Conservative ladder to members, to donors.

-They received 175 000 donations with each at an avg of $150.

-They use a 2 pocket concept – a donation to the party and another to the riding (sounds similar to the Victory Fund)

-The Conservative Fund helps riding associations by:
-membership sales via phones, direct mail, internet where 50% of sale goes to the local riding assoc
-direct contributions via canvassers, which have exceeded 2 mill
-credit card processing for associations, which have had a very huge significant impact
-a revenue sharing program which has resulted in $4 million cash fundraised from fund to local association
-if riding associations wish, the fund will share their nat’l list of active and lapsed donors with them

The top three riding associations which fundraised the most this past year where:

-Abbotsford
-Calgary centre north
-Calgary south west

(Really I thought the top one would be in Quebec? Apparently they didn’t do so well there…)

What also helps is the fact that funds go to a war chest, not to pay down debt.

Laureen Harper then comes on stage to hand out volunteer and achievement awards. She says she that volunteering is the ultimate exercise of democracy, for when you volunteer, you say daily what kind of community you want to live in. She adds “the Titanic was built by professionals, the Ark by volunteers, and of course, they’d all want to be on the Ark.” Various people accepted awards and then to break….

Constitutional sessions coming up….

Recommend this Post

Financial Realities and Banning Pre-Writ Election Advertising

UPDATED NUMBERS
From the tables below comparing election spending to the approximate per vote rebates each party will have received this election compared to last we can get a good picture of where the different parties stand financially. The Liberals are clearly in rough financial shape right now which should make those who really want a leadership race ponder whether the party can feasibly afford it (especially with some past candidates who may want to run again not having their debts paid off yet and the donation limits now being $1,100 instead of $5,400 as they were in 2006), but it is obvious that the party that is in the worst financial shape right now relative to the last election is the NDP. They spent $5 million more this time and will be receiving only marginally more back in rebates. They will clearly be unprepared for an electoral campaign for some time and may have to reconsider spending the maximum next time. Regardless BOTH parties will really have to ramp up their fundraising efforts over the next year.

But I do have one idea that I think all opposition parties could get behind that would ensure the Cons financial advantage doesn’t continue to give them an unfair advertising advantage outside the writ period. Simply the opposition parties should band together and pass legislation banning any paid political advertising outside the election period such as TV, radio and paid internet banner ads. Since such legislation wouldn’t technically be a money bill and doesn't direct any spending of taxpayer money I don't see why the opposition couldn't use an opposition day or pass this as private member's bill to have it go through. It is in all the opposition parties' interests, but is also an issue of fairness. We have spending limits in an election campaign for a reason, but the Conservatives flagrantly got around this time by running ads in the week leading up to the writ drop. What stops them from doing that for a full 3 or 4 weeks prior to their next election call? That's hardly a level playing field for an election campaign and makes the spending limits into somewhat of a sham.

Conservatives would oppose banning political advertising outside the writ period on grounds of free speech but I don’t see how this would be much different from a constitutional standpoint than election spending limits during campaigns or limiting the amount individuals can donate to political parties (the latter of which Conservatives have constrained further). I also hardly think we'd see many Canadians oppose shielding them from year round election ads, in fact I think it's something that would find majority support, as I'm pretty sure that for most Canadians the only time they want to think about politics is election time and would rather see commercials about something else outside the writ period.I believe many cities already have rules banning election advertising in gas stations as I seem to recall from the oily escapades.

I realize I'm no election law expert and this may prove difficult to enforce in practice, but I'd thought at least throw the idea out there and I'm curious what other Liberals and members of other parties would think about this. If the Liberals, NDP and Bloc don't band together to pass something like this though I don't see how the Conservatives would be stopped from dominating the airwaves with only their message for the foreseeable future.

Electoral Rebates Relative to Election Spending

2006 Election

Party	# of Votes	Electoral Rebate	Approximate Amount Spent on Election	Difference Between Amount Spent and Rebate
Conservative	5,374,071	$9,404,624.25	$18,100,000*	$8,695,375.75
Liberal	4,479,415	$7,838,976.25	$18,100,000	$10,261,023.75
Bloc Québécois	1,553,201	$2,718,101.75	Unable to find	N/A
New Democrats	2,589,597	$4,531,794.75	$14,900,000	$10,368,205.25
Green	664,068	$1,162,119.00	Unable to find	N/A

* Of course Elections Canada is still looking into whether Conservatives illegally exceeded
the election spending cap by an additional $1.1 million

2008 Election

Party	# of Votes	Electoral Rebate	Approximate Amount Spent on Election	Difference Between Amount Spent and Rebate	Difference in Shortfall Between 2008-2006
Conservative	5,205,334	$10,046,294	$20,000,000	$9,953,705	$1,258,329.63
Liberal	3,629,990	$7,005,880	$20,000,000	$12,994,119	$2,733,095.55
Bloc Québécois	1,379,565	$2,662,560	Unable to find	N/A	N/A
New Democrats	2,517,075	$4,857,954	$20,000,000	$15,142,045	$4,773,840.00
Green	940,747	$1,815,641	$4,000,000	$2,184,358	N/A

Note: I know the numbers in these tables are not exact. They are based only on the info I could find. I am under the impression that the rebate was $1.75 per vote in 2006 and is $1.93 now. Anyone can feel free to correct me in the comments if they have better information and I will update these tables accordingly. As well I know that the per vote rebate isn't the only rebate Elections Canada distributes as I believe they also reimburse any candidate who receives at least 10% of the vote in their riding 60% of their election expenses. The Jurist notes in the comments that approximately half of parties election expenses end up being re-imbursed by Elections Canada on the whole aside from the per vote rebate. Still by comparing the per vote rebate from this time to last time it gives us a good idea of where the parties stand financially (in terms of public subsidies) after this election compared to last.


Note2: Blogger seems to be giving me trouble formatting these tables properly. If anyone still can't read any of the info in the tables please note it in the comments. Thanks!

UPDATE: For some added context here are the latest available fundraising numbers for the three months ending June 30:
Conservatives: $3.5 million from 33,833 contributors
Liberals: $912,378 from 9,556 contributors.
NDP: $711,637 from 11,941 contributors
Green party: $213,922 from 3,184 contributors
Bloc Quebecois: $36,698 from 607 contributors.

Even though the NDP had more contributors this is still further evidence that they are worse financial shape than the Liberals after having spent the same amount in this election and received back substantially less in rebates. Though of course this is just one quarter and not a full representation of how much party had at its disposal going into the election.

I do hope the Liberal numbers will be much higher when the next quarterly numbers up to September 30th are released but regardless it is clear we have a lot to improve in the year ahead in terms of fundraising and it should be a top priority. The Victory Fund was a strong initiative but it should only be the start of much more to come. I think we have a lot to learn from the Obama campaign in the U.S. that has succeeded in finally overcoming a traditional Democratic weakness in fundraising. If we can even replicate a fraction of his success we will be strong financially again but it will take incredibly hard work and bold ideas to make it happen. I'll obviously be happy to promote any new fundraising initiatives that come about in the near future.

In the meantime I hope there is serious consideration of ways to formally curtail political advertising outside the writ period.

Recommend this Post

Better Know a District: Brant and the Victory Fund

An Open Letter to Calgary Grit

So I'm very glad to see the Victory Fund fully operational and up and running. It's a great initiative with great promise and I hope all Liberals who have been reading about it take part. Sign up to donate at least $10 a month ($5 to a riding association and $5 to the party) (which works out to about $2.50 after taxes) and help Stephane Dion and ridings across the country promote the Liberal cause! Let's do our part to ensure the next quarter's results shuts the pundits and Conservatives traps about our fundraising once and for all!

However, I couldn't help noticing in Calgary Grit's post about this initiative that he is on the market so to speak in terms of which riding his money will go to. Well because I support my riding of Brant and my local MP Lloyd St. Amand so strongly I want to lay out why he
should be supporting us (no pressure though Dan :) ).

Though most of this letter applies just as well to anyone else who can't decide which riding to commit your monthly donation to (though perhaps I might strike a different tone with someone else). For all of those to which this applies, Brant appreciates your generous support.

Dear Calgary Grit:

I see you have offered up your money to a lucky riding somewhere in Canada. As someone always looking to grab spare change, I thought why not take a stab at convincing you why my riding wants (and dare I say deserves) your money most.

First of all, we have an excellent, dedicated, hardworking MP, Lloyd St. Amand. Lloyd is an amazing parliamentarian, and is especially friendly and supportive to our youth in Brant. He's not just intensely focused on keeping his own seat and seeing Stephane Dion become the
next PM, but he's also got his eye on building the riding up for the future. The same can be said of our riding association (BFLA) that, since the Brant Young Liberals were founded over a year ago, has been extremely supportive of our club in terms of providing resources so that we can always grow our membership and promote the party and our policies to other youth in the region.

With this kind of support, we have been effective in promoting the Liberal cause in Ontario which has helped us to gain the Ontario Young Liberals South Central region policy parliament May 24. However, as our members graduate from high school and go onto university, we need to do a recruitment drive to maintain our greatness. Lloyd St. Amand is supportive, and we hope that, as you are a Liberal known for your youth involvement, you might also indirectly support us through opening your wallet to our riding.

But that's not all! The BFLA also does a lot of outreach efforts to get more of the Brant community involved. We have open houses, golf tournaments, community dinners, and we have recently done quite a few policy forums with prominent Liberals from the area leading the
discussion.

Finally, Brant could use the money because it is being heavily targeted in the past few months by the Conservatives because in the last election, the Liberals won by just over 500 votes. We continuously get those silly and misleading crappy postcards from Tory MPs out of touch
with our riding. So any money we could would be helpful for a future campaign to further get our message out.

Brant has been Liberal for 15 years and hasn't been Blue since 1958 and it'd be a shame to see it go to the Conservatives next time all because Calgary Grit wouldn't fork over at least $5 a month to the riding (yes it could just make all the difference :) ).

So I hope you (and others) heed the call! Help ensure Brant stays red for decades to come! With your support victory is assured!

Recommend this Post