Sunday, November 02, 2008

But, yeah, a change in leadership will cure ALL our problems...

Not.

OTTAWA — The once-mighty Liberal party has raised less money from fewer donors so far this year than the NDP, traditionally the poor sister of Canadian
politics.

According to quarterly financial returns posted by Elections Canada, fewer than 35,000 donors contributed a total of $3.6 million to the Liberal party from January to September this year.

Over the same period, the Conservatives vacuumed up almost $15 million from more than 125,000 individuals.

Even the NDP did better than the Liberals, raking in $3.7 million from almost 44,000 contributors.

posted by calgarygrit at 9:07 a.m.

8 Comments:

  • Paul Martin used to raise a million dollars a night. Surely leadership has something to do with fundraising.

    By Blogger James Bowie, at 9:50 a.m.  

  • Actually James, I think that overall 'honesty' has much to do with the ability to raise funds from the public. On this front, Liberals, by and large, need to ask themselves if they have sufficiently acted to regain the 'trust' of many Canadians who witnessed Adscam, etc.

    I watched some Libloggers 'pooh pooh' the issue at the time that Dion was selected as leader.

    The brand continues to be affected (for right of wrong) but I submit that this is still part of the problem that the Liberal Party of Canada faces.

    By Blogger leftdog, at 10:09 a.m.  

  • I expect the biggest issue is that the Liberal Party has never quite figured out how to separate $$ from the public in $50 and $100 chunks.
    Historically they have relied on large corporate donors (hence the Martin "millions a night") who buy into the Liberal brand and who, let's face it, are buying future favours (or so they hope). The great unwashed (us) are more likely to buy into the individual, thus the impact of leadership moving forward.
    We need someone we can believe in, and then we'll open our wallets.

    By Blogger Canajun, at 10:15 a.m.  

  • Does this include money collected for old leadership debts?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:31 a.m.  

  • At $5400 per individual and corporate donorship, my dog could raise a million for the Liberal Party James.

    By Blogger James Curran, at 12:54 p.m.  

  • As I always say, follow the money; money talks -- donation trends tell a much more reliable story than opinion polls.

    If people can't be persuaded to part with their hard-earned cash, the party won't stand a chance. Particularly since Dion became leader, and he's anything but a Liberal (he's too far on the radical left to be a Liberal), the party has become seriously disconnected from its grassroots and lifelong members.

    It will be difficult, even under a new leader, to convince voters that the party is being moved back to the political centre. Right now, Canadians look at the Liberal Party and see a party that's to the left of the NDP (!).

    Once you have lost voters' trust (including your own party members), it is extremely hard to restore their faith.

    At this point, I'd say the Liberal Party is headed for the same fate as its British counterpart. And now that Frank McKenna won't be available, I don't see how any of the leadership candidates that remain could prevent that from happening (most of them would actually accelerate the party's demise).

    By Blogger George, at 3:08 p.m.  

  • From Steve Janke:

    "The riding association for Chambly-Borduas transferred a jaw-dropping $185,000 to the Liberal Party on September 22."

    The Liberals just need more riding associations to be generous.

    By Blogger nuna d. above, at 3:59 p.m.  

  • James - that was before the new rules.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 6:14 p.m.  

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