The B.C. Liberals have managed something that not many political outfits can do. Most parties have perennial financial problems, but the Liberals’ money issue is different. They’ve got too much of it.
Perceptions have been driving the continued controversy about fundraising in B.C., and the appearance of businesses that do business with the government sending millions the Liberals’ way is the main one that rankles. But the other perception is the yawning gap between the governing party and the others.
If the Liberals and the NDP were even in the same general ballpark in terms of fundraising, there would be a lot less concern about the issue. But the Liberals rake in three or four times as much as the NDP, and 25 times as much as the Greens. It’s such an overwhelming, sustained advantage, it gives people pause.
Part of it is simply because the Liberals have been in government through four terms. Incumbency gives a big edge because business donors are generally more interested in politicians with power, than without. Even the prospect of being a winner makes raising money a lot easier.
New Democrats got a vivid lesson in 2013 when they were overwhelming favourites to win the election. They collected $2 million from corporations, 10 times the amount they got from that sector in the previous election. Many of the business leaders who routinely give to the Liberals hedged their bets and gave to the NDP.
The party avidly courted those donors with the same expensive receptions that both major parties are still holding today.
They still managed to lose, but it wasn’t for lack of money.
Part of the Liberals’ funding edge stems from the standard mistrust business has for the NDP. That’s part of the comeback the Liberals have to the complaints about big money in politics.
It’s a free country and everyone’s playing by the same (lack of) rules. If the NDP wanted to even the balance, all they’d have to do is come up with more popular policies.
Or come up with better fundraisers. At the Liberal convention in 2014, Vancouverite Bob Rennie was introduced as the new fundraising chairman, and you could tell right away the party was going to take its fundraising effort to another level. He’s a hugely successful real-estate agent, art investor and philanthropist with a Midas touch.
Rennie stepped away from that post at the end of last year and the results showed. The Liberals pulled in more than $12 million in 2016 and paid off all debt.
They also confounded people who suspect big money dictates Liberal policy to some extent. The real-estate industry, riding a spectacularly lucrative price spiral, was a big donor to the party, but the Liberals did that industry no favours by clamping down on real-estate agents and trying to suppress prices. It’s a measure of how acute the housing affordability problem became that the Liberals would bite the hand that feeds them.
The money edge isn’t as apparent during the campaign period, since parties all have the same spending limits. Where it shows up is in day-to-day operations in off-years outside the campaign. In the last reporting period, the Liberals ran a $7.4-million operation; the NDP’s budget was $3.5 million. The Liberals also have a much bigger payroll.
With no limits whatsoever, B.C. is the freest of all jurisdictions, but that might be about to change. Although the Liberals gave up on their plan to change the disclosure system and let the bill die last week, Premier Christy Clark did promise also to refer campaign financing to an independent panel.
That promise still stands, and is matched by the NDP. Clark’s proposal has two catches: The panel can’t recommend taxpayer financing, and any reform ideas would need unanimous support to take effect.
Those could create a deadlock where nothing much would come of any panel report.
But any panel, no matter which government appoints it, would only have to glance at the national landscape and conclude that B.C. has fallen way behind the times on campaign financing. There’s a chance the Wild West of campaign financing will some day be domesticated.
