Tag: power corp

2004 Leadership race: fundraiser breakdown

The numbers are out on the fundraising front for the CPC 2004 leadership election. The documents have been released (h/t BBS) and there are some interesting numbers from the “returns” of the Harper, Stronach, and Clement campaigns.

First, the total expenses of each campaign:
Tony Clement: $826,807
Stephen Harper: $2,073,084
Belinda Stronach: $2,496,482

and now, some interesting numbers from the returns.

Belinda Stronach contributed $3,950,000 of her own money towards her own campaign. Tony Clement, while contributing $0 of his own money, $3,000 was contributed by his family. The Harper family (or at least people named Harper) contributed $3,525.

Power Corp donated $25,000 to each of the three campaigns. EnCana did the same.

John Tory donated to $8,600 to Tony Clement’s campaign.

Belinda Stronach gave $100,000 to Tony Clement’s campaign, while Stephen Harper’s campaign gave $10,000 to Mr. Clement’s leadership bid. Everyone loves Tony…

Stronach did not have any financial support from any member (on quick glance) of the Conservative caucus (House of Commons), while Harper enjoyed wide support through many MPs (or through MPs spouses).

Update: Ok, we’re corporate whores too (albeit less so), but check out the NDP!

Looks like I jumped the gun a little on displaying Mike Brock’s infographic as the truth, but in his defence, it was a result more of poor methodology than deceit. Mike took the numbers from 2003 and 2004 and put them together. The Conservative Party didn’t largely exist until 2004 and thus Mike should have added up the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative numbers. I’ve done that below. Further, bill C-24 limited individual and corporate contributions for 2004. So, I’ve done the numbers for 2003 and I’ve presented them below.

After my own research, these are the numbers that I came up with:

Liberal Party of Canada top donors.

  1. $2,974,341.20 55555 Inc. (Paul Martin Leadership Fund)
  2. $172,781.14 Canadian National Rail Company (Corporation)
  3. $148,257.17 Bombardier (Corporation)
  4. $135,889.00 Grant Forest Products (Corporation)
  5. $111,750.50 Bell Canada (Corporation) (Including BCE and Bell Globemedia)
  6. $106,055.65 Kruger Inc. (Corporation)
  7. $105,892.00 EnCana Corporation (Corporation)
  8. $104,726.70 SNC-Lavalin (Corporation)
  9. $100,000.00 Donald Meehan (Individual)
  10. $95,000.00 Power Corporation (Corporation)

Conservative Party of Canada top donors:

  1. $91,703.9 Scotiabank (Corporation)
  2. $70,976.64 Magna International (Corporation)
  3. $45,000 Power Corporation (Corporation)
  4. $41,015.34 Bank of Montreal (Corporation)
  5. $59,655.79 Bell Canada (including BCE and Bell Globemedia) (Corporation)
  6. $35,404.10 Telus Corporation (Corporation)
  7. $28,359.02 McCarthy Tétrault (Corporation)
  8. $25,000 CanWest Global Communications Corporation (Corporation)
  9. $22,820.00 Canadian Alliance Lethbridge Constituency Association (Non-profit organization)
  10. $20,000.00 George Weston (Individual)

and… holy crap, check out the NDP…

New Democratic Party top donors:

  1. $909,775.00 CEP (Trade Union)
  2. $775,919.60 UFCW Canada (Trade Union)
  3. $823,289.60 CAW (Trade Union)
  4. $374,789.68 CUPE (Trade Union)
  5. $791,064.34 USWA (Trade Union)
  6. $252,619.60 OPSEU (Trade Union)
  7. $219,440.00 Canadian Labour Congress (Trade Union)
  8. $205,900.00 IAM & AW (Trade Union)
  9. $159,850.00 SEIU (Trade Union)
  10. $105,246.40 Ontario Eng Catholic Teacher’s Association (Trade Union)

So, whenever somebody tells you that the Conservatives are influenced too much by “Big Business”, show them that the Liberals receive significantly more in cold cash contributions from corporations. Also, look at the NDP numbers. “Big Unions” have a significantly greater political influence on the NDP than “Big Business” ever had on the Liberals or Conservatives. A substantial problem is that as a union member, one doesn’t have much control over which political party to which their union dues are donated. As a corporate shareholder, however, one can always sell their shares.