Premier Christy Clark may call an election when NDP supporters are suffering donor fatigue

by Charlie Smith on March 24th, 2011 at 12:20 PM

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Since taking power in 2001, the B.C. Liberals have never had much difficulty raising money.

The corporate community appears to have an unlimited amount of cash when it wants to stop the B.C. NDP from winning an election.

Finance Minister Kevin Falcon raised $708,665 for his leadership race alone. The winner, Christy Clark, raked in $519,040.

There will be millions more coming into the B.C. Liberals before the next provincial election.

The B.C. NDP is far more reliant on individual donations. And this is going to create a problem for the party if Clark waits long enough to call an election.

In the meantime, NDP donors are going to be asked to cough up some cash for the upcoming federal election. They're also financing B.C. NDP leadership campaigns.

In addition, people who oppose the harmonized sales tax, including many New Democrats, will be asked to contribute to the referendum campaign.

Then there are the November municipal elections, when left-leaning candidates across the province will be asking their friends for political donations.

After that point, it will become more difficult for the B.C. NDP to get its supporters to give one more time to stop the B.C. Liberals.

Money is the lubricant that greases provincial political campaigns. No matter when an election is held, the B.C. Liberals will be running on all cylinders, thanks to the bottomless pockets of its corporate donors.

The B.C. NDP, on the other hand, probably won't have nearly as much money come the next provincial election, thanks to donor fatigue.

Don't think for a minute that this issue isn't influencing Clark's decision on the timing of the next campaign.

Comments

8 Comments

Akat

Mar 24, 2011 at 2:11pm

Just one more reason why the NDP needs to move away from the 2005/2009 election strategy of moving to the centre. Toe to toe campaigning on centrist turf against a well financed, freshly branded Christy Clark Liberal will be brutal if the BCNDP doesn't have as much $$ as the BCLiberals. Better to try to bring out the core vote - 50% of whom stayed home in 2009 - with a populist, fired up message.

Davd Schreck

Mar 24, 2011 at 2:13pm

Ever wonder why when you donate to an organization you get even more fundraising letters from it. That's because those who give are the ones most likely to give more. The leadership race will build the NDP's donor list so fund raising for the next election should be easier.

Matt T

Mar 24, 2011 at 3:00pm

Akat wrote
" Better to try to bring out the core vote - 50% of whom stayed home in 2009 - with a populist, fired up message."

Its one thing to advocate a different philosophical approach, its another to pull numbers out of the air to "prove" your point.

Lets start with 2001; you may not think that result of about 28 % of the vote represents the BCNDP core, but since you dont actually identify what you think the core is (other than to claim 50% stayed home, which is a mathematical impossibility given the election results of 05 and 09) I think its safe to assume that if you dragged your ass off the couch in 2001 to vote NDP, you probably qualify as a "core" supporter. My feedback having worked on one of the two winning campaigns confirms this - when you barely scrape out wins in Hastings and Mt. Pleasant, you are at your core, or maybe even lower.

Your dreamt up "figure" is just that, a dream. If 50% of the NDP "core" vote stayed home in 05 and 09, explain how it is that the BCNDP still managed to increase their seat count and and their share of popular vote, while garnering more voters than ever in 2005, and the highest percentage of popular vote in 2009, with slightly less (about 50,000) votes.

If I believe your argument, the BCNDP can have half its "core" vote stay home, yet still increase its seat count and its vote total, and percentage. All things being equal, unless an equal number of Liberal voters stayed home (leaving percentages of votes unchanged), your hypothesis is illogical and mathematically impossible.

Which is pretty standard for the "go left" crowd in the BCNDP, just say it and make it up as you go along. Who cares if it doenst make any logical or mathematical sense, as long as you believe it, why not spout it ? It works for Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

That probably explains why they cant win nominations, cant win internal party positions, and cant even field a credible candidate for leader after helping to push out the previous one.

When the "proof" you provide to support your argument is illogical and non existent, how much credibility should I, or anyone else, give the conclusions drawn from your argument ?

RonS

Mar 24, 2011 at 6:16pm

When ever the wicked witch wants an election we're ready. She's the one who has to watchout. Not for the money but for her mouth. She's a motor mouth and it will sink her ship. Go Crusty Go! Russia's closer than you think Sarah!

glen p robbins

Mar 24, 2011 at 7:59pm

I believe Dave's right - and who needs to donate to the HST campaign from the NDP?

You could spend no money fighting it and still have a good chance to be successful.

Bruno15

Mar 24, 2011 at 10:41pm

Election spending is capped by law at $6.6 million for each party. This is enough money to print, put up and take down yard signs and perhaps some Baby Duck at the election party. The debates and press events/conferences are the big events for undecides, not those stupid yard signs. Regardless, if each party can't raise that pittance every 4 years, they arent organized enough to run a yard sale, let alone a province.