Massive transfer from the BQ riding of Chambly-Borduas to the Liberal Party
Saturday, November 01, 2008 at 08:06 PM Comments: 19
The latest returns for the Liberal Party are in, and between July and September of this year, the Liberals pulled in less than the NDP. Again.
In some ways, there is no news here, which has to be very depressing for Liberals everywhere. But when you look into the returns in detail, things pop out at you. In this case, there is a remarkably large transfer from the riding of Chambly-Borduas, a solid Bloc Quebecois seat if there every was one.
The Liberal Party has not figured out how to raise cash:
The once-mighty Liberal party has raised less money from fewer donors so far this year than the NDP, traditionally the poor sister of Canadian politics.
According to quarterly financial returns posted by Elections Canada, fewer than 35,000 donors contributed a total of $3.6 million to the Liberal party from January to September this year.
Over the same period, the Conservatives vacuumed up almost $15 million from more than 125,000 individuals.
Even the NDP did better than the Liberals, raking in $3.7 million from almost 44,000 contributors.
The dismal financial news comes just as Liberals are digesting the results of the Oct. 14 election, in which the party fell to its lowest share of the popular vote – 26.2 per cent – since Confederation.
I wonder if CarbonZero is going to get paid for those carbon offsets.
But look at Part 2d of the Liberal Party return. This lists transfers to the Liberal Party. Twelve of the thirteen transfer for this past quarter were $5,000 or less. But that thirteenth transfer was in a league of its own. The riding association for Chambly-Borduas transferred a jaw-dropping $185,000 to the Liberal Party on September 22:
liberal-return-q3-2008
(click to enlarge)
September 22 was the day the Liberals released their party platform. In case some context would help.
That coincidence probably doesn't mean anything. But $185,000! Wow.
Just to get a sense of scale, this riding association reported a total of $436.25 in donations in 2007. An additional $1200 came into the riding association from the Liberal Party. In 2006, the riding association reported a grand total of contributions and transfers of $9,550, and in 2005 it was $8,580.90, and only $2060.00 in 2004.
And yet before September of 2008, there is a transfer of $185,000 from this otherwise impoverished riding association to the Liberal Party. Where did that money come from? Remember that the riding of Chambly-Borduas has been sending BQ MPs to Ottawa since 1993, the first general election in which the BQ participated.
Weird.
The other guys: Just by way of comparison, in the same quarter, the NDP recorded three $365 transfers for a total $1095 from the riding of York South--Weston, and that's it. The Conservatives reported no transfers from riding associations in that quarter. The Liberal riding association for Chambly-Borduas is in a class by itself.
A theory: There are no limits to loans. What if the riding association took out a loan, then handed the money over to the main party to help keep the Liberal Party boat afloat during the election?
