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Vision Vancouver campaign rakes in $2M in donations, including over $1.4M from corporations

Gregor Robertson
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. Global News Files

Vision Vancouver has voluntarily released their donor list for the 2014 election campaign, showing the party raised over $2 million from individuals, corporations and unions.

Corporate donations made up the biggest chunk of support, with 133 corporations contributing over $1.4 million to the campaign.

Most major developers are represented, including Amacon ($45,000); Aquilini Development ($60,000); Concord Pacific ($40,000); Holborn Holdings ($75,000); Intracorp  ($15,000); Polygon ($15,000); Wall Financial ($15,000); Rize Alliance ($34,500); Wesgroup ($55,000) and Solterra ($25,000).

Gordon Nelson Investments, well-known for renovating several apartment buildings in the West End, donated $25,000.

Real estate marketing company Magnum Projects made a major donation of $75,000, along with Rennie Marketing Systems, which contributed $26,000 to the campaign.

The Vancouver Taxi Association, which recently launched a lawsuit to stop the ridesharing app Uber from operating in Vancouver, donated $53,000.

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Unions contributed a total of $320,880. CUPE BC led the contributions list with a $152,000 donation. CUPE local 15, which represents City, Parks and some school board staff, donated $40,000. CUPE 1004 donated $34,000. The BC Federation of Labour, BCGEU, UFCW, Unifor and the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association all donated significant amounts as well.

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Donations from individuals totaled $492,588. Several prominent Vancouverites make appearances on the list, including Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, who donated $37,500.

David Aisenstat, CEO of the Keg Restaurants, donated $100,000.

Gregor Robertson’s wife, from whom he recently separated, donated $5,000 to Vision Vancouver. The mayor himself donated $500.

Rafii Houtan, who is also vice-president of residential development at the Beedie Development Group, made a personal donation of $15,000.

Arnold Silber, president of Value Property Group, made a personal contribution to the campaign of $10,000.

Green Party school trustee Mischa Oak kicked in $10. Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer donated $320, and Park Board commissioner Niki Sharma donated $3,000.

The full list is available here.

The NPA released their full donor list Friday. COPE and the Green Party have already released their donor lists.

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Vision Vancouver did not release their donor lists for 2012 and 2013.

In sharp contrast to Vancouver, Toronto limits the amount of money individuals can donate to candidates.

The donation limit for mayoral candidates is $2,500, and $750 for councillors. Corporate and union donations are completely banned.

However, the numbers are similar to Vancouver’s campaign totals. Toronto Mayor John Tory’s successful campaign raised $2.48 million from more than 5,000 people, compared to the $2.25 million raised by Vision Vancouver.

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