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The big book of campaign donations in civic politics

April 29th, 2010 · 9 Comments

The MSM (mainstream media) has taken a beating in recent years, as everyone from the far right to the far left to the far centre takes a run at everything they do wrong.

But they do some things right, thanks to the dedication of many journalists who see their work as more than just a job. The Vancouver Sun, and specifically my old work colleagues Lori Culbert and Chad Skelton, have undertaken the arduous task of tallying up campaign donations from the last civic election and making it easy for all of us to look at them methodically. (Hint on who the biggest donors are: one municipal union and one big developer.) This is the kind of project that bloggers won’t be undertaking any time in the foreseeable future.

The main story of the series is here and it links to all kinds of tables that are searchable by politician, donor, municipality and political party. I for one am looking forward to poring over it, especially so I can see the contributions to smaller municipalities where I’ve frequently been told it’s the Wild West when it comes to campaign contributions and development.

It will be a resource for me and others. It might even push the provincial government into changing the rules so that this kind of information is more easily available. Thank you.

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  • Brenton

    Actually, I think you’ll find with a little searching that some blogs are doing some amazing in depth work on politics in Canada. Try Pundits’ Guide for starters:

    http://www.punditsguide.ca/index.php

    And over at openparliament.ca and http://www.datadotgc.ca/ some bloggers are working on opening up extensive data sets to the Canadian public.

  • Living in the West End

    Why is it that Westbank, Peterson and Millenium do not show up as contributing to Vision Vancouver. Could it have something to do with the 1/4 million debt Vision owes for which reporting is long overdue.

  • Seeking Accountability

    This may be useful reference material about the dynamics. “Funding City Politics: Municipal campaign funding and property development in the Greater Toronto Area” (2009) Does it matter who funds election campaigns? Robert MacDermid shows how municipal election candidates in the Greater Toronto Area rely on corporate and development industry funding and how that affects political outcomes, representation and even influences the shape of the cities we live in. Free download at http://www.socialjustice.org

  • Urbanismo

    We have, I am told, inherited our . . . errrr . . . democracy . . . from the UK, so this may be interesting http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18941 to the massing civic parties.

    A UK national vote comes up May 06: ironically the day, 1951, I crossed the border at Douglas, Surrey BC. Jeeezless, young and stupid, I sure was smart to do that!

    Interesting, for say, Mr. Geller or Mr. Bickerton, or perchance the entrepreneurial landlord, who when all is said and done, was given his four suites by Mummy dear, and like many of his self-made, “hardworkin”, hard-drinkin’ pals likes to be on the right side of the play.

    NPA, VV, Commie, Green, have I missed some, will be out there chasing your vote. Ummmmm I wonder will they have solutions to our fundamental societal problems: fractional reserve banking and land title.

    Oh BTW landlord I owned eight suites on Kits Point for fifteen glorious years and made a massive profit when I sold: until . . . errrrr . . . inflation factored in!

    Oh and BTW, again, I was never so stupid to give discounts to any tenant . . .

  • Jack

    If civic politicians don’t have access to funding I would be suspicious of their decisions on pay scales etc.
    Campaigns are expensive – if you had to rely on your own money – it could break many good candidates.
    Limits per candidate are the key – large centres $20,000, medium size $10,000 and small $3000

  • David

    Helps explain why councilors and city staff seem guilty around nine-acre waterfront property on False Creek, owned by mega-developer Concord Pacific, is assessed at a surprising $400,000.
    Read more: http://www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=78aed213-1f9f-40da-855b-e6ba5a96cdfb&p=3#ixzz0msl939WL

  • spartikus

    is assessed at a surprising $400,000

    I’ll bid $500,000!

  • Neil Monckton

    The Sun’s work on this issue is exactly the kind of public interest journalism we need — solid information that has research depth and thoughtful analysis.

    Moreover, their series on campaign finance reform is very much inline with public opinion, as our own survey of nearly 3,7000 BCers found (see http://www.thinkcity.ca/electoral_reform_survey) and the Mustel poll that Dr. Kennedy Stewart commissioned (http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Majority+British+Columbians+support+limits+municipal+campaign+spending+donations+poll/2977834/story.html).

    Even Minister Bill Bennett is now saying it’s time we had campaign finance limits ( a flip-flop from his earlier comments from just six weeks ago).

    It’s very clear the public wants limits on campaign finance, the question now should be how much?

  • landlord

    @Urbanitis : It hasn’t been “interesting” for quite some time now, and the cost of living isn’t the only thing subject to inflation.
    Presumably a fractional-reserve bank financed the Kits Point units and you held title until you sold. And then deposited the profit in a f-r bank.
    Even fundamental societal problems hold a silver lining for some, it seems.