By Justin Goulet/LethbridgeNewsNOW

Campaign Spending And Donations

Parkland Institute report examines influence wealthy donors can have on municipal election

Oct 14, 2021 | 1:05 PM

EDMONTON, AB – With general voting day fast approaching in the 2021 municipal elections in Alberta, the Parkland Institute has released a report focusing on campaign spending and donations.

The report, titled ‘Big Money, Big Influence’, alleges that campaign finance legislation passed by the UCP government in 2020 allows wealthy individuals to “significantly influence” the upcoming October 18 elections.

Changes to the Local Authorities Elections Act (LAEA) approved by the UCP give “wealthy’ individuals the opportunity to donate up to $5,000 to as many candidates as they want. Candidates can donate $10,000 to their own campaign, up from a maximum of $4,000.

Executive director with the Parkland Institute, Bill Kilgannon said “it is evident that the purpose of the changes was to give a clear advantage to those candidates who have the support of wealthy individuals and corporations.”

“Voters expect that our democracy should be conducted on a level playing field, but that is not possible when the rules allow some candidates to raise significantly more money than others.”

mayor hopes to meet housing minister this month

Alberta demands Ottawa back off on housing funding stripped from Red Deer

2h ago

Last seen Jan. 15

Missing: Courtney Cattleman, 17, of Maskwacis

7h ago

eyes up

Air Spray training around Red Deer Regional Airport

7h ago

He added that the modifications create an advantage for incumbents as well.

“Candidates can raise $5,000 every year prior to the election period and contribute $10,000 of their own funds, so when you think about what that means for incumbents going forward to future elections, they know they want to run again for a second term or a third term, so they’re raising $15,000 a year, where others that may just decide the year of the election to run are behind by $45,000.”

Kilgannon believes that with wealthier individuals being able to donate more to a campaign, that could influence a candidate’s platform.

He said, “for some candidates, not all, but some candidates may adjust their policy positions in order to attract support from wealthy people and their businesses.”

“If they know they have to raise $100,000 or $200,000, they’re going to be looking at how their policies could reflect being able to raise that.”

University of Alberta graduate student Sayeh Yousefi co-wrote the report with Kilgannon.

Yousefi compiled and analyzed a database of the campaign contributions of all municipal candidates in the 2017 elections in the province’s four largest cities – Lethbridge, Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton. Some findings include:

• Lethbridge candidates raised $46,283 and Red Deer candidates raised $53,884.
• Candidates in Calgary raised $5,435,750 and Edmonton candidates raised $2,016,926.
• Corporations provided 56 per cent of all campaign funds raised by the city councillors and mayor of Edmonton, and 47 per cent of all campaign funds raised by aldermen and the mayor of Calgary.

Yousefi said, “I think most voters will be shocked to see how some candidates are able to raise as much as 10 times what their closet competitor is able to raise and use loopholes or fail to properly disclose their contributions.”

“Why bother having campaign finance laws if neither the city nor the province is going to enforce them?”

The report includes eight recommendations “to help make municipal elections more democratic and open to candidates who are not tied to wealthy donors.”

• Change the total campaign contribution limits from individuals to a maximum of $1,000 to any one candidate and to a maximum of $4,000 in total campaign contributions.
• Regulations need to be created under Section 147.34 of the LAEA for spending limits that “level the playing field to the average amount of funding raised by councillor and mayoral candidates for each city.”
• Candidates should be allowed to contribute to a maximum of $4,000 to their own campaign.
• Candidates should not be allowed to raise any funds before the election period and until they are nominated for the election.
• The option of giving all candidates a basic amount of public funding, relative to the size of the city or town’s voting population, should be examined.
• Candidates should be required to file a disclosure statement that outlines all campaign contributions over $50 both one month and then one week before the municipal election.
• Contributions and expense limits should be developed for third-party advertisers and political action committees so that their influence is limited, and they should be required to disclose their contributions one month before the election.
• Each municipality must proactively review all disclosure forms to clarify any discrepancies with the candidates, report all potential breaches of the LAEA to Elections Alberta to investigate, and impose more extensive fines and bar candidates from running again if they broke the law.

The full report, which includes a breakdown of funds raised by each candidate in Lethbridge, Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton during the 2017 municipal elections can be seen here.