I’m too negative? Always a downer? OK: You want GOOD news? So do I! Here’s some good news:
Grits struggle to raise money while Conservatives have lots of support
If dollars and cents are an accurate measure of a political party’s health, the federal Liberals have a bad case of the financial sniffles. And some are worried it could turn into full-blown pneumonia.
The party that has ruled Canada for most of the last century – and enjoyed an unbroken run in power since 1993 – raised a disappointing $5.2 million in private-sector donations last year, less than half the rival Conservatives who took in $10.9 million.
The Grits stepped up their efforts in the first half of 2005, reporting contributions of $2.2 million between January and March. But they still didn’t equal the $2.6 million raised by the Tories.
Part of the problem for the Liberals is that there are new rules for donating to parties, essentially cutting off donations from well-nurtured liberal-friendly (
!) corporations of every description. That CANADA logo comes in so handy for the Liberals! Virtually every Canadian-made TV show has one at the end. And you can’t walk a block in Canada without seeing one on a festival banner or on the credits of a movie with Canadian content in it. It sort of reminds me of seeing Chairman Mao’s poster all over the place in China—or posters of Stalin in Russia.
EVERYTHING in Canada, including business, your job, “Canadian culture”, and even your good health, is “brought to you by….” our benevolent Liberal-left government. That’s “progressive”!
The Liberals had previously worked so hard to subsidize and sponsor virtually all Canadian companies so that they, like virtually all Canadians, would become dependent to one degree or another (hopefully completely!) on the Liberals— you know—like in Cuba or the old Soviet Union. That’s “liberal”! That’s “progressive”!
Why did they change the rules? To appear as though they were honest, and to help the retiring Honest-Jean Chretien appear as though he wasn’t a complete and utter thief and political manipulator desperate to stay in power no matter what (hey: did it work? And has anything really changed?).
My guess is that they also figured that by now, they had so many individual Canadians either working directly for the government or a branch of the government (all direct divisions of the Liberal Party to my way of thinking as you know), or who were completely dependent on the Liberal Party for their continued “sponsorships” , “grants” , “loan guarantees” , “subsidies” of every description , and sundry market “protections” , that individual Canadians would more than make up the difference.
WRONG! Once again the liberal-left totally misreads the average mainstream Canadian.
Former party president Stephen LeDrew, who once described the new law as “dumb as a bag of hammers,” believes Chretien was motivated mainly by a desire to polish his personal image as he approached retirement.
“It was enacted in haste for the wrong reasons,” says LeDrew. “Now this is what the party is stuck with. I guess it’s part of (Chretien’s) legacy.”
Amazing to me how that Liberal tacitly admits to the complicity and how without the former Liberal dishonesty, they’re essentially screwed. Now that it’s more honest, it’s a bad thing to Liberals. That’s how liberals think.
And how do they get around that nasty “honesty” bugaboo now?
Many Liberal fundraisers have continued to put the arm on the same business executives they’ve always dealt with, albeit by persuading them to donate as individuals rather than corporate entities.
Their occasional successes are illustrated by the 2004 donor list made public earlier this month by Elections Canada.
Eight members of the McCain family, which controls Maple Leaf Foods and McCain Foods, combined to contribute more than $33,000 to the Grits last year.
At Power Corp. of Canada
[Hey! That’s where fired U.N. envoy Maurice Strong worked!—ed]
, several members of the Desmarais family, including patriarch Paul and CEO son Andre, forked over.
So did vice-president John Rae, a longtime Chretien confidant, boosting the total Power-related donations to $25,000.
[…] Larry Tannenbaum, the Liberal party’s revenue chairman, defended the McCain and Desmarais contributions in which a number of senior executives and their wives put up the $5,000 maximum.
“There will be a lot more of that type of giving for sure,” said Tannenbaum. “Why shouldn’t the wife give? Why shouldn’t individuals give?”
And herein lies the good part. The real telling part. The part where the average good Canadian citizen comes in. The part that should give us all hope:
The Grits relied on a donor base of about 17,800 people in 2004 and 5,400 in the first quarter of 2005 to raise a combined total of $7.4 million.
The Tories didn’t have as many well-heeled contributors. But they drew on some 68,300 donors last year and 28,000 in the first three months of this year – many of whom kicked in $200 or less – en route to a grand total of $13.5 million.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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