BC NDP leader John Horgan has vowed to ban big money from B.C. politics. But, for now, he is soliciting donations for the 2017 election campaign from the resource industry at a downtown Vancouver fundraiser on November 24.
Will the opposition party top its 2012 take?
Before the global oil and mining slump, then-leader Adrian Dix hosted a December 5, 2012 event at the Fairmont Pacific Rim that garnered $89,946.09 from the sale of 18 tickets ranging from $4,500 to $10,000, according to Elections BC filings.
Horgan’s November 24 event at Rosewood Hotel Georgia’s Hawksworth Restaurant carries a $2,500 single or $4,000 couple rate. The NDP website says that for $10,000 an organization can bring up to five guests to the 90-minute executive reception. One of the guests will be eligible to attend the three-hour dinner and cocktails with Horgan and his team in the Bel Private Dining Room.
Party president Craig Keating said he did not know the names and affiliations of donors or the amount of advance ticket sales. He said the party’s provincial council has made no decision made about proactive disclosure before Elections BC’s annual April release of party financial reports.
On April 6, Horgan tabled the Campaign Finance Reform bill to ban corporate and union donations and ask the Chief Electoral Officer to set limits on individual donations. It failed to receive BC Liberal support.
“While other provinces have instituted strict rules on campaign financing, B.C. has moved in the opposite direction,” Horgan said at the time. “British Columbians are telling us clearly that this is the wrong direction. They’re tired of the real or perceived influence of organizations with big pockets over the political process in this province.”
Environmental lobby group the Dogwood Initiative issued a memo to members of its mailing list on the morning of the fundraiser, urging them to tell Horgan to immediately follow the lead of the Green Party and refuse corporate and union donations.
“The BC NDP can no longer justify the argument that they need to meet the BC Liberals dollar for dollar to be competitive,” said the Dogwood Initiative email. “From Bernie Sanders to even President-elect Trump, the American election has shown that politics is about more than big money. British Columbians want to elect politicians who represent our interests and will listen to everyone --- not just those who are forking over corporate cheques.”
At the BC Liberal convention November. 6, Premier Christy Clark reiterated her party’s devotion to the status quo.
“Our political party is working hard to raise money from private sources, we don’t believe that political parties should have to take from tax dollars in order to run elections,” Clark told reporters. “People want us to spend that on healthcare and education and teachers and nurses, they don’t want their tax dollars going into the pockets of political parties.”
B.C. has no limits on the size or source of donations. Tax receipts are issued to donors, so there is an indirect subsidy.
Keating said the government is not only refusing to limit fundraising, but it is spending millions of dollars of public funds during an election year on the Our Opportunity is Here advertising campaign to gain votes.
“We don’t have the resources of those tax dollars. We are coming together with a financial plan that we feel will meet our needs,” he said.
In late September, Deputy Premier and BC Liberal re-election committee co-chair Rich Coleman told a fundraising event that the party had never brought in so much money in a year and was “fully funded” for the 2017 campaign. Unlike the NDP, the governing party has the power to make laws and award contracts. It has continued to hold fundraising events throughout the province, while cancelling the previously scheduled October 3 to November 24 Legislative session.
• Naomi Yamamoto, the junior minister for emergency preparation, held a $1,000-per-person fundraiser on November 16 at an undisclosed West Vancouver location. Yamamoto did not respond for comment about the venue, the amount raised or the identity of donors.
• Attorney General Suzanne Anton hosted one of the biggest BC Liberal galas of the fall on November 18 at the Fraserview Hall, where attendees paid $150 to $625 each.
• Finance Minister Mike de Jong hosted a $250 cocktail party on October 12 at the Wall Centre Sheraton Hotel. A BIV reporter asked to interview de Jong but was instead told to leave the building.
• International Trade and Multiculturalism Minister Teresa Wat is hosting a $388-a-plate event at River Rock Casino Resort with Clark on November 28.
• Two Clark-picked candidates are passing the hat at exclusive clubs in downtown Vancouver, far from the ridings they hope to represent. The charge to meet Skeena candidate Ellis Ross at the Vancouver Club is $1,000, while the admission for North Island candidate Dallas Smith’s reception on December 6 at the Terminal City Club is $350. The latter includes appearances by Energy Minister Bill Bennett and Education Minister Mike Bernier.
Four years ago, in 2012, the BC Liberals outraised the NDP by $9.2 million to $5.1 million. In the 2013 election campaign, however, the NDP outraised the Liberals, ($9.6 million to $8.56 million), but the Liberals outspent the NDP ($11.74 million to $9.09 million).
Democracy Watch is seeking an order from a judge for a fresh conflict of interest investigation of Clark. The party paid her a $50,000 stipend last year after appearing at private fundraising events where attendees paid up to $20,000 to meet her.
The petition to B.C. Supreme Court says conflict of interest commissioner Paul Fraser, who ruled that Clark was not in conflict, is in conflict himself because his son, John Paul, is a Clark-appointed deputy minister.
The elder Fraser cited a “familial connection” when he decided to step back from a 2012 investigation of a complaint that Clark was in conflict during the BC Rail privatization. That complaint was eventually dismissed.
British Columbians go to the polls on May 9, 2017.
