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…
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Accidental 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: 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 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: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Plenty of observers have noted the Cons’ complete lack of a reasonable explanation for standing in the way of a global consensus to at least ensure that asbestos is accurately labeled as a hazardous substance. But yo…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Underestimated
Others have already noted how refreshing it is to have an Official Opposition which is willing to take a stand on issues of substance. But it’s also worth highlighting another important factor in the NDP’s strategy for this week.One of the main blind s…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Paul Wells is pleased to have received some response about how the Cons claim to be saving money. But it’s worth taking a close look at the substance of that response, and particularly highlighting that one of …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Stonewalled
Not that it should come as much surprise that the release of the first report (PDF) from the Afghan detainee document panel fits the pattern of delay and distraction from the Cons. But this declaration (italics added) looks to take the stonewalling to …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Adam Radwanski points out how Stephen Harper’s continuing Senate embarrassment figures to play into the NDP’s hands:If Mr. Harper was looking to signal once and for all that he’s abandoned his populi…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Unquestioned
Yes, Chantal Hebert is right to point out the glaring disconnect between the help the media has offered the Cons, and the constant scorn it’s received in return. But there’s even more glaring evidence of the Cons’ manipulations in how the party is curr…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: All according to plan
Oh, that poor, unfortunate Stephen Harper. If he could have counted on his party’s Senate majority to allow its own institution to be reformed, he might have faced some pressure to make the composition of the Senate somewhat less out of touch with the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 14, 2011
With the debate over Libya taking up the time for debate, yesterday didn’t see quite as much of a range of issues discussed as some previous days. However, there’s still plenty of material worth noting from the day’s events.The Big IssueObviously, the …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Crawford Kilian interviews Linda McQuaig on inequality, including this comment on how to handle the damaging effects of inequality politically:On whether inequality is becoming a serious political issu…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
I won’t claim to have compiled a full list of criticisms of the Cons’ government. But I’m pretty sure that putting too many resources into environmental priorities would rank rather near the bottom.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On warped incentives
Chris nicely highlights the Cons’ stunningly quick resort to back-to-work legislation after a mere day of Air Canada’s CAW strike, at a point where there’s been little if any impact on anybody. But it’s worth noting as well how it is that such legislat…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: June 13, 2011
As I’d suspected, there looks to be plenty of material for a review post from just a day’s worth of events in the House of Commons. So here’s an inaugural daily review of what you may have missed in Ottawa yesterday – with a few themes I’ll be developi…
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