Jason Kenney raked in cash in his run for the Progressive Conservative leadership, but he’s also reaping criticism for his campaign’s financial practices.
Fundraising figures from the PC leadership election posted on Elections Alberta’s website Tuesday show Kenney raised and spent $1.5 million, posting a huge financial advantage over his opponents in the race.
The Kenney campaign also said his Unite Alberta organization, which operated before the PC race officially began, had raised $508,000 from 2,129 donors in the pre-writ period.
However, while the campaign released a list of 74 donors to Unite Alberta who had given more than $250 for a total of $118,745, a further 63 donors who gave more than $250 remained undisclosed, as was their total contribution.
Kenney originally pledged the names of all those who gave over $250 to Unite Alberta would be made public.
In an email this week, Kenney spokesman Blaise Boehmer said the original disclosure commitment was made in “good faith.”
“Subsequently, we received a legal opinion advising that consent must be sought under the Privacy Act before disclosing donor details. We therefore sought permission from donors to disclose their names publicly,” he said, explaining that not all donors had given that permission.
The NDP issued a release saying Kenney had broken his promise and questioned “what is he hiding?”
Alberta Liberal Leader David Khan, who recently called for tougher rules around third-party political organizations such as Unite Alberta, said the disclosure shows the need for action.
“The secrecy surrounding Unite Alberta and the huge sums of money involved in this campaign are deeply troublesome,” said Khan in a news release.
Related
Unite Alberta — which was not legally allowed to transfer money to Kenney’s leadership campaign — faced no donation limits under Alberta law, but Kenney set a limit of $30,000. The largest donation publicly disclosed was $15,000 from Robert Hobbs.
Among the major donors to Kenney’s actual campaign were corporate Calgary heavy hitters such as Fred Mannix and Ron Mathison, who each gave $25,500; Nancy Southern, who gave $21,262, and Richard Haskayne and Rene Amirault, who each donated $17,000.
Other major contributors, who each gave $26,000, were Marsha Binnion, Stanley Milner, John Neudorf, Prem Singhmar, Deborah Wall and Constance and Dennis Nolin.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper also donated $1,700 to Kenney.
The PC contest started with a donation limit of $30,000 set by the party. However, Alberta contribution limits were changed partway through the leadership race, with a new rule allowing individual Albertans to give $4,000 in total provincial political donations annually.
The NDP said Kenney’s numbers showed his reliance on big donors.
In an interview Tuesday, before the figures were released, Kenney dismissed the idea that large donations should be a cause for concern.
“In the entire year I’ve been doing this, not a single person, not a single donor has tied or tried to connect their contribution to an issue or an interest,” he said.
“All of the donors with whom I’ve met have just been enthusiastic about the prospect of the renewal of free-enterprise politics, of unity and defeating the NDP.”
The financial documents show Kenney’s fiscal edge in the PC race.
The former MP’s campaign’s expenditures included $662,728 on salaries, $164,022 on rallies and events, $128,625 on travel and $114,237 on advertising. It ended with a small $3,618 deficit.
In contrast, Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke, who finished a distant second at the March leadership convention, raised and spent $192,602.
Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson spent $45,578 and posted a $1,563 shortfall. Former MLA Stephen Khan, who dropped out of the race, ran up a $30,000 deficit on expenditures of nearly $55,000.
Kenney campaigned for the leadership on a platform of uniting the PCs with the Wildrose. Members of each party will vote this weekend on an agreement that would see them join in a new United Conservative Party.
