Money has been called the oxygen of politics and if that is the case, the Conservative Party is breathing easier than any of its competitors these days.
In Canadian terms, it is a money machine.
In American terms, the amounts raised in Canada with strict donation rules are laughable compared to south of the border where campaign donation limits are unheard of and a race for a two-year term in Congress can cost $50 million or more.
In Canada, there are donation limits thanks to campaign financing reforms introduced by former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien that eliminate large union and corporate donations and largely restrict political funding to small individual donations.
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Chrétien’s election financing bill was widely seen as a swipe at his rival and successor Paul Martin, deeply connected to the corporate sector and aspiring to lead a party addicted to big corporate support.
Chrétien ended that almost a decade ago, stripped the NDP of its big union donations and the Liberals of their corporate support.
Only the Reform/Conservative party benefited with its base of widespread small donors.
The advantage continues.
Elections Canada reports that in the second quarter of the year that included the election campaign culminating in the May 2 vote, Conservatives raised more money from more Canadians than all the other parties combined.
And with Conservative plans to eliminate taxpayer subsidies to parties (based on their voter base) over the next four years, the ability of the governing Conservatives to convince tens of thousands of Canadians to give the party small donations within legal spending limits is a key base.
Elections Canada records show that in the second quarter of 2011, almost 53,000 Canadians donated more than $8.2 million to the Conservative Party — slightly more than donations combined for the Liberals Party, New Democratic Party, Bloc Québecois and Green Party.
Since the Conservatives won a majority government May 2 with less than 40 percent of the popular vote, the numbers suggest they are far better fund-raisers than vote reapers.
That also is true of the Liberals who fell to an historic low of less than 19 percent of the popular vote but with $3.6 million in donations, drew more than 22 percent of the money raised.
New Democrats were the opposite, attracting close to 30 percent of the popular vote and a record number of seats but just 19 percent of funds raised. Still, party fund-raising was significantly above any previous year level including a large increase in Quebec donations to coincide with its record harvest of 59 out of 75 seats in the province.
Conservative legislation to end the $2-per-vote subsidy for each party that has been the mainstay of the Liberals and BQ in recent years will be introduced in the autumn when Parliament resumes.
Finance minister Jim Flaherty says it will be phased in over the four-year term of the Conservative majority government.
