Comments on: big money spent in alberta’s 2012 election.

By: Wildrose raised big cash in 2012, Tories fell behind. | daveberta.ca - Alberta politics

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:36:21 +0000

[...] fundraising numbers from the 2012 election are lower than expected and are somewhat misleading as many Tory candidates raised astonishing amounts of funds on their own accord. For example, Calgary-Greenway Tory Manmeet Bhullar‘s campaign spent $133,294, Fort [...]

By: Kevin O’Leary at Chapters | booksfromthelaundryroom

Kevin O’Leary at Chapters | booksfromthelaundryroom — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:07:08 +0000

[...] Picture credit [...]

By: Reclusive billionaire allegedly donated $430,000 to PC Party, making a strong case for finance reform. | daveberta.ca - Alberta politics

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:48:52 +0000

[...] It is important to note that these disclosures only include the funds raised by the political parties during the election. Individual candidates raised significant amounts during the election campaign. [...]

By: transparency is hard when your party has been in power for 41 years. | daveberta.ca - Alberta politics

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:47:59 +0000

[...] expense disclosures will be made available online is still unknown. As I wrote about last month, not all online transparency is created equally (or accessibly). As has also been pointed out by political reporters online, the new rules are [...]

By: Edmonton Notes for 9/2/2012 - MasterMaq's Blog

Edmonton Notes for 9/2/2012 - MasterMaq's Blog — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 18:53:34 +0000

[...] The provincial government released its first quarter results on Thursday and projected a $3 billion deficit. In other province-related news, Dave took a look at what candidates spent in the 2012 election. [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:23:17 +0000

Why don’t we know where the candidates spent the money?

By: jerrymacgp

jerrymacgp — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 15:01:59 +0000

“…PDFs are very, very hard to make…” In what universe? Most scanners can scan documents as PDFs; anyone with a Mac can send a print document directly to a PDF file; in the Windows world, applications like CutePDF do the same thing. They are among the easiest of files to create.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:56:43 +0000

@ Rob H if that’s how you are going to view campaign expenses, by including promises, add a few billion to Danielle Smith’s campaign for her prosperity bonanza dollars.

Also, congratulations to Laurie Blakeman’s campaign team – the only Edmonton area campaign to win that was not also the riding’s biggest spender.

By: David Ebner

David Ebner — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:06:39 +0000

As a citizen and a journalist, I want to correct what Corey said. Elections Alberta does not provide PDFs “as soon as the parties” blah blah blah provide them. Elections Alberta receives them at the deadline, in this case for candidates on Aug 23, a Thursday, and then ONE WEEK LATER (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/redford-nearly-quadrupled-smiths-fundraising-sums-in-last-alberta-election-documents-show/article4510326/) put out the NON-SEARCHABLE pdfs. PDFs are very (very) hard to make, and computers confuse me as much as they confuse Elections Alberta. As for the searchable version, true, what you say Corey, and very very true, re “eventually,” such as 2011. 2011, as we may recall, was LAST YEAR. Still not searchable (http://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efParty.cfm?MID=FP_8&PID=8 and http://efpublic.elections.ab.ca/efParty.cfm?MID=FP_6&PID=6)

My conclusion: Political financial donations should be disclosed in real-time (whether it is a one-party petrostate or otherwise).

By: Corey Hogan

Corey Hogan — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 18:30:53 +0000

Elections Alberta provides PDFs as soon as the parties and candidates provide them – essentially digital copies of exactly what was provided.

But they will, eventually, provide searchable versions as they go through and approve them.

By: Will Munsey

Will Munsey — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 10:10:19 +0000

Is it naive to call for a cap on spending… or at least a cap on donations? If the financial playing field could be leveled, perhaps the quality of the candidates would show through the “glam” of the money.

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 05:55:42 +0000

Rob H, she won the nomination and the constituency gave her the $ they had, which they raised to spend on a campaign. Nothing unusual there. The WR actually transferred $ from central party accounts to RA and HF. I personally don’t care, but they are NOT the same thing.