News that Raj Sherman‘s Alberta Liberal Party is downsizing its operations by moving into a smaller office and restructuring its organization led me to take a glance at provincial political party fundraising numbers for 2013.
Due to a change in legislation last year, political party fundraising reports are submitted to Elections Alberta quarterly and published online for the public to access. This year’s first and second quarter fundraising numbers
Danielle Smith‘s Wildrose Party raised a stunning $1,097,677 between April 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013, according to Elections Alberta financial disclosure documents. This was a significant jump since the first quarter of the year, when the official opposition party reportedly raised $527,613.
The official opposition Wildrose out-fundraised Premier Alison Redford‘s governing Progressive Conservative Association, which reported $684,232 raised in the second quarter.
The Liberals, who have traditionally faced difficult challenges in the fundraising field, appear to have doubled their income in the second quarter of 2013. While this growth is positive, it still leaves the third-place party miles behind the governing Tories and opposition Wildrose.
| 2013 Party Fundraising | Party | (<$250) | (>$250) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Quarter(Jan 1-Mar 31) | PC | $26,462 | $525,912 | $552,375 | |
| Wildrose | $394,068 | $133,545 | $527,613 | ||
| Liberal | $41,918 | $13,375 | $55,293 | ||
| NDP | $91,245 | $29,549 | $120,791 | ||
| Alberta Party | $6,812 | $600 | $7,412 | ||
| 2ND QUARTER (APR 1-JUN 30) | PC | $25,248 | $659,984 | $684,232 | +$158,320 |
| Wildrose | $486,472 | $611,205 | $1,097,677 | +$570,064 | |
| Liberal | $71,861 | $49,255 | $121,116 | +$65,823 | |
| NDP | $100,622 | $25,412 | $126,034 | +$5,243 | |
| Alberta Party | $6,025 | $600 | $6,625 | -$787 | |
Meanwhile, the Separation Party of Alberta has changed their name to the Alberta First Party. The request was received and approved by the Chief Electoral Officer and the change was made effective May 14, 2013.
A previous incarnation of the Alberta First Party existed from 1999 to 2003 and was lead by John Reil (who had previously run for the Social Credit Party and later ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2004). The AFP ran candidates in the 2001 provincial election and received its best result in the Cardston-Taber-Warner constituency with 26% of the vote.
Elections Alberta lists former Separation Party leader Bart Hampton as the current leader of the AFP.
6 replies on “Liberals downsize, Wildrose raise more than one-million dollars.”
WR seems to attract the little donations. Small donations from many people. In the second quarter however, significant jump in major donor donations. PC appears not to be able to attract those many donations of small amounts but from lots of people. At election time, it is often these small contributors who really turn on the donations. The large donation donors often just about the same every year so little in way of a bump at election time
Very interesting stats. Will be better able to see trend when 3rd quarter reported. This is the tough one cause everyone is on vacation ( or flooded)
You will note that the NDP is consistently raising more money than the Liberals, and vastly more than the moribund Alberta party. The Alberta Liberals are a spent force on the centre-left of the spectrum, and should dissolve and its members all join the NDP.
Of course, that won’t happen, but one can dream, can’t one?
Mr. Dave Berta Sir. The Separation Party ‘was’ the Alberta First Party which changed names to the Separation Party in 2004, its just going back to its original name.
Jerry MacGregor, sorry to hear that you are such a dispirited, defeated and negative contributor. The ND’s don’t have mass appeal to Albertans, trust me they really really don’t. One election cycle is not a long term indicator of Liberal voters, since the Lakes of Fire hysteria scared half of the true Liberal voters to sacrifice that vote to thwart a perceived danger to progressive values, Liberal voters felt the easiest way to thwart that boogeyman a was to temporarily loan those votes to Red Fraud’s weak coalition that promised a JUDICIARY lead Public Judicial Inquiry against. Teachers, health workers and got workers all got a taste of bait and switch waffling, instead we got a waffled watered down inquiry engineered to meet their political ends. The Tory party is in a funny spot now Tory conservatives feel alienated, since southern Alberta is all Wildhorse, Liberal Progressives don’t trust Redfraud, as they have been mislead, and lied to again and again with something between fed half truths and watered down outright lies, teachers know that, as does Universities. So Red Fraud has loaned votes on the left and disenfranchised votes on the right so it’s all downhill for the tories. Regardless of who is Liberal Leader, the Liberals Will get 10 to 15 seats and the WR WILL hemorrhage a sizeable number of seats from rural Alberta and pickup a few WR seats in Calgary. As long as WR has socially moderate candidates with a credible sprinkle of progressiveness, it’s all uphill for WR. When out of touch folks like you propose libs merge with ND’s, it only helps the Tories to maintain ground against the WR. SO either some of you are stealthed union bargainers or completely glib and out of touch, or in fact, actively trying to promote the Tories by proposing ND mergers and neither is neither good for democracy nor for political accountability, or the wellbeing of middle class families.
SO jerry mac and other dispirited looserish thinking Progressives, cheer up and start being positive, it’s all downhill for the tories, the question is how much ground will they lose on the left and on the right? If I was in the backroom and a voter I would vote Liberal if I was progressive or WR if I was conservative.
“If I was in the backroom and a voter I would vote Liberal if I was progressive or WR if I was conservative.”
My strategy exactly – I have a 5 year Wildrose membership but I would happily vote Liberal or NDP in my constituency if it meant getting the PCs out of power. At this point, any change is good change!
Hey Dave,
Glad the Liberals are moving to a new location. It’s nuts to shell out so much money for a two floor, six room office. It did make sense a decade ago — much less now.
So I’m glad the fiscal choice is being made to move. Also, I’m happy our fundraising doubled versus our last quarter.
Vincent