Conservatives, NDP outpacing Dion Liberals in fundraising

by JANE TABER — May 2, 2008

The Harper Conservatives continue to outpace the Dion Liberals on the party fundraising front, raising nearly $5-million in the first quarter of this year compared with $846,129 for the Grits.

The New Democratic Party also did better than the Liberals, raising $1.1-million.

The poor showing had some Liberals grumbling:

"The failure to raise money is a huge problem and speaks to [Stéphane] Dion's continued support of the Conservatives," a long-time Liberal organizer said. He was referring to the fact that the Liberals have allowed Tory legislation to pass to avoid toppling the government and causing an election.

"Why would anyone send money in when they know the party will just use it to keep propping up a lousy Conservative government? It's nuts.

"We had a solid financial footing when Dion took over and it has been completely frittered away on a Harper majority," he said.

Liberal Party president Doug Ferguson, however, tried to put a positive spin on the numbers, noting that the party raised about $300,000 more in this quarter than it did in the same period last year.

He said, too, that the number of donors - 10,169 - is much higher than the 4,365 from last year.

"The point is that we're going in the right direction here," he said.

Last year, however, party officials attributed the poor returns to the fact they were taking a breather from the fundraising efforts they put in for the leadership convention in December, 2006.

Meanwhile, the Harper Tories raised $4.95-million in the first quarter of 2008 from 44,345 contributors - about four times as many donors as the Grits had. In the same quarter last year, the Tories raised $5.1-million from 45,192 donors.

The NDP raised $1.1-million from 13,329 donors compared with $1.2-million from 14,782 contributors last year. The Bloc raised $37,006 from 463 donors in this first quarter. Elizabeth May's Green Party raised $210,962 from 4,731 donors.

Still, Mr. Ferguson emphasized that the Liberal Party has enough money and an airplane and the buses it needs to run a full, national campaign.

And he said that his priority now is to oversee the transition to a new fundraising model. Later this month, the Liberals are to launch their Victory Campaign, which will involve better use of the Internet in enticing donations, and asking for regular contributions rather than "one-offs."

The Liberals have had trouble raising money as a result of new fundraising rules that came into effect in 2004 that severely limit corporate, individual and union donations. They used to rely on big contributions from corporations.

But a veteran Liberal MP says the real problem for the party is that Mr. Dion has not connected with the public because he has not revealed any platform policies.

"People need a reason to give," the MP said. "People will give more readily if there is a connection to the direction he will take the party and the country."

For their part, the Conservatives say a fundraising campaign in which they criticized the CBC drove a significant number of donations into their coffers.

"It was overwhelmingly our single biggest fundraising initiative," said a Tory official. Late last year, party campaign director Doug Finley sent out a letter asking for money after reports that a CBC reporter supplied questions to a Liberal MP during a committee hearing.

"It demonstrates a huge level of suspicion amongst grassroots Canadians about the Liberal Party and the CBC," the official said.

Conservative Party spokesman Ryan Sparrow, clearly pleased with the Tory results, said these numbers "continue to raise more serious questions as to how Stéphane Dion will pay off his leadership debt."

There are reports that the Liberal Leader owes as much as $800,000 for his leadership campaign.

Mr. Sparrow said, "... If you cannot even motivate grassroots members from all leadership camps to support the party, how are you going to motivate them to pay off your own debts?"

Source:The Globe and Mail