August 22, 2005
Elections BC released election financing reports for all political parties and third-party advertisers today. The numbers tell the story:
- This disclosure proves what everyone always suspected -- big labour continues to pull the financial strings behind the NDP. Between direct donations to the party and their own spending during the election, they contributed over $5.4 million to the NDP cause during the election.
- Total union donations to the NDP totaled $1,865,873 – over 270% higher than in 2001 ($684,105).
- Third-party advertising by unions totaled $3,563,437 – over 7000% higher than the approximate $50,000 campaign by the big unions in 2001.
- This isn’t the full story on union spending for the NDP. Under existing laws, unions only have to make public what they spent during the actual election -- it does not include the millions more they spent in the lead-up to the election. This includes things like the Oscar ads and billboards from the BCTF, the full-page newspapers ads from the BCGEU, and the massive volunteer campaign paid for fully by the BC Federation of Labour.
- This also shows why the NDP's calls for changes to election financing are so empty. Their plan does nothing to address the substantial third-party union spending that takes place over the course of a term off the books -- spending that clearly represents the bulk of NDP financing.
