Sun-soaked cats.
Continue readingAuthor: Greg Fingas
Accidental Deliberations: On radioactive deals
Yes, there are plenty of reasons for concern about the sale of AECL to SNC-Lavalin. But let’s add another by raising the other issue that has put SNC-Lavalin in the news recently:Hon. Jack Layton (Leader of the Opposition, NDP): Mr. Speaker, people wou…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that (with a B.C. flavour) for your Tuesday reading.- Yes, the CCPA’s report showing that taxes in British Columbia are downright regressive is stunning enough on its face. But the real story may lie in the response of the province’s finance m…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On direct representation
In discussing how the new Parliament has functioned so far, Charlie Angus makes an important point which hints at how the Bloc lost touch with Quebec – as well as where the NDP has a massive opportunity:NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) ag…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Suitable for comment
After a bit more of a delay than I’d anticipated, commenting capability has been restored. Go wild.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
Boy, is it ever a good thing we have a stubborn, unaccountable majority government to help restore confidence in Canada’s economy.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On downturns
Sure, it might seem like reason for concern that it’s only the type of government spending which the Cons are determined to slash that allowed Canadians in general to somewhat avoid a significant economic collapse over the past few years:In 2009, avera…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 15, 2011
Yes, the spring session of Parliament has come to an end. But with much less news popping up on the political scene, I’ll take the opportunity to take a look back at the days I didn’t get to through my Parliament in Review posts – starting with Wednesd…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Kept on track
Impolitical rightly points out that the Harper Cons are well on their way to implementing every single odious policy that was rightly labeled as unacceptable overreach when included in Deficit Jim Flaherty’s 2008 fiscal update. Now if only somebody had…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week.- Following up on yesterday’s post, the Hill Times reports that even the first set of cuts from the Harper Cons’ majority looks to have a serious effect on our federal government’s ability to function for itself rath…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On private opportunities
Last week, I noted that the Harper Cons’ generally opaque austerity plans include one cause for alarm, as they’re looking to turn public services into sources of corporate profit. And via Digby, the L.A. Times offers an example of how that type of stra…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to end your weekend.- Brian Topp points out the biggest difference between the Parliamentary reaction to the Harper Cons’ attack on Canada Post workers and previous overreaches by the Con government: Before May 2, there would hav…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unreasonable outcomes
I’ve pointed out before how the Cons’ deliberate attack on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers figures to create damaging incentives as federally-regulated employers consider how to handle future collective bargaining. But now that we’ve seen the Cons…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Layout Changes
You may have noticed that the blog is experiencing a few technical difficulties following a template change to permit posts like this one to display properly. The JS-Kit commenting system should be restored shortly.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Fund-Raising Review By Province – Conservatives
As promised, let’s dig into La Presse’s party fund-raising data to see what we can conclude about where and how Canada’s political parties have raised money over the past few years – starting with the party which has lapped the field in the area.
The numbers are arrived at as follows:
– The full list of donations is sorted by party.
– The party donations are sorted first by province, then by year.
– Once the sorting isolates the donations for a province and year, those amounts are summed and included in the chart below, alongside the percentage of the Cons’ annual donations sourced from the province.
Due to some imperfections in the data, some donations aren’t classified by province (in the Cons’ case totalling $54,199.70) or year (totalling $3,594,456.53), while others included in more authoritative totals seem to be missed entirely. And the 2010 numbers are even more spotty since they’re based on quarterly rather than annual data. But assuming there’s no systematic reason for particular types of donations being missed, we should still be able to draw some conclusions from the partial data.
Conservative Donations – 2007-2010 (partial)
Prov | 2007$ | 2007% | 2008$ | 2008% | 2009$ | 2009% | 2010$ | 2010% |
AB | $2,380,340.42 | 20.09% | $3,716,554.54 | 20.18% | $2,664,881.58 | 20.00% | $1,452,201.50 | 24.15% |
BC | $2,019,853.99 | 17.05% | $3,100,353.52 | 16.83% | $2,250,832.69 | 16.89% | $1,038,942.14 | 17.28% |
MB | $463,520.5 | 3.91% | $803,726.78 | 4.36% | $664,025.63 | 4.98% | $295,992.94 | 4.92% |
NB | $135,870.93 | 1.15% | $262,806.92 | 1.43% | $202,580.19 | 1.52% | $77,061.01 | 1.28% |
NL | $20,881.78 | 0.18% | $58,065 | 0.32% | $18,615 | 0.14% | $19,010 | 0.32% |
NS | $160,287.36 | 1.35% | $301,036.59 | 1.63% | $241,260.57 | 1.81% | $98,618.29 | 1.64% |
NT | $24,711.25 | 0.21% | $29,851.25 | 0.16% | $22,008.50 | 0.17% | $17,459 | 0.29% |
NU | $1,750 | 0.01% | $3,735 | 0.02% | $7,330 | 0.06% | $7,100 | 0.12% |
ON | $4,891,693.16 | 41.29% | $7,448,196.41 | 40.44% | $5,409,701.47 | 40.60% | $2,405,206.29 | 40.00% |
PE | $73,704 | 0.62% | $77,067 | 0.42% | $87,418.49 | 0.66% | $17,290.02 | 0.29% |
QC | $1,172,699.74 | 9.90% | $1,804,613.22 | 9.80% | $1,094,044.96 | 8.21% | $261,928.92 | 4.36% | SK | $460,756.01 | 3.89% | $755,387.63 | 4.10% | $623,807.58 | 4.68% | $306,239.01 | 5.09% | YT | $41,450 | 0.35% | $56,270.45 | 0.31% | $38,505 | 0.29% | $16,390 | 0.27% | Total | $11,847,519.14 | n/a | $18,418,114.31 | n/a | $13,325,011.66 | n/a | $6,013,529.12 | n/a |
So what can we tell from the above? On a first look, there are a few details worth highlighting – keeping in mind that with election years and incomplete data limiting the value of looking at the totals, the most important information figures to lie in the comparison between provinces.
To start with, the most remarkable trend in the few years of data is the Cons’ drop-off in Quebec fund-raising.
It’s not much of a secret that the Cons’ strategy from the end of 2008 onward has largely involved punting on the province aside from their then-current seats. But they didn’t seem to have a lot to lose to begin with, having never brought in so much as 10% of their annual fund-raising from a province with 23% of Canada’s population. And from that starting point, it’s stunning to see how their abandonment of Quebec played out from a fund-raising perspective – with a modest but significant drop in 2009, followed by a dive off a cliff in 2010 to the point where the Cons’ Quebec fund-raising rated behind that from each of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Meanwhile, the Cons have found what strikes me as a surprising counterweight to make up for that Quebec decline.
I’d have expected the Cons to have maximized their western fund-raising long ago, while still having some room to grow in Ontario as they’ve expanded their vote totals there. But La Presse’s numbers show exactly the opposite.
In fact, the Ontario haul as a proportion of Con fund-raising has been relatively stable – which seems to signal that the Cons have already tapped the market to the extent reasonably possible. Instead, it’s the prairie provinces that have actually increased their relative contribution fairly steadily in recent years – with Saskatchewan increasing each year, Manitoba nearly doing the same, and Alberta seeing a striking jump in 2010, even as all were already contributing well above their share based on their population totals.
Finally, one other note of interest is the effect that Danny Williams’ ABC campaign looks to have had on the Cons’ fund-raising in Newfoundland and Labrador. Not that they started from much of a position of strength originally – but in both 2007 and 2009, the party actually managed to raise more from each of the Yukon and the Northwest Territories than it was able to bring in from a province with half a million residents and a nominally affiliated provincial government.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unlikely donations
Since I haven’t seen much follow-up on La Presse’s fund-raising map and database, I’ll be taking a stroll through the data over the weekend – with a particular focus on how Canadian political donations break down geographically. But before I get into t…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Tabatha Southey eviscerates the Cons’ determination to force Canadians into a state of constant and unregulated online surveillance at their own expense:Bill C-51 seems to indicate a shift. It makes accessing…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Staggered Crossing – Further Again
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On self-defeating strategies
I’ve made the point when it comes to other issues. But apparently there’s a need to make a more general statement for the benefit of the Libs. So here goes:You won’t find an inch of viable political ground by proposing right-wing policies that Stephen …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On learning experiences
Let’s close this blog’s discussion of #vancon2011 with one last post, this time dealing with the NDP’s constitutional preamble – which figured to be the convention’s main topic of interest until it was deferred for further consultation.There’s no doubt…
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