Liberal fundraisers in B.C. leave NDP in the dust

Last Updated: Monday, April 6, 2009 | 6:14 PM PT

CBC News

B.C. Liberals raised — and spent — more than twice as much money as the NDP last year, the latest records from Elections BC show.

The Liberals raised $7.9 million last year, while the New Democratic Party brought in $2.9 million, the records show.

In dollar terms, The Liberals got 60 per cent of their funds from corporations, with mining and forest companies and developers among the biggest contributors, as usual.

But if you count donors, Liberal communications director Chad Pederson said Monday, a different picture emerges.

"We certainly have made a real broad effort to reach out to a lot of individuals," he said, "and I think for us the big factor that came into play this year was that we had 20,000 new individuals step up and make donations to our party."

NDP president Jeff Fox saw things a little differently: Many of those individual Liberal donors are prominent business leaders, he said.

"My assumption is that corporations have learned how to manage the rules of Elections BC and how to improve the optics of the BC Liberal Party and have made some adjustments accordingly."

The Liberals pointed out that the NDP got more than $500,000 from labour unions last year, with the B.C. Federation of Labour the biggest donor by far.

The New Democrats do accept some corporate donations, and the Liberals get a few dollars from labour.