Opposition parties are demanding action and alleging “secrecy” around “huge sums of money” after Elections Alberta released documents showing Jason Kenney spent nearly $1.5 million on his campaign to become the leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives.
Kenney’s spokesperson says the team is pleased with the fundraising totals and received legal advice that consent was needed from donors before disclosing their details.
READ MORE: Jason Kenney spent nearly $1.5M on Alberta PC leadership race
Alberta Liberal Leader David Khan is renewing his call for strict regulation of political action committees (PACs).
“Nowhere in Mr. Kenney’s legally-mandated financial statements does it mention the $508,000 raised by Unite Alberta in the unregulated period before the PC race started,” Khan said in a news release on Wednesday.
“Mr. Kenney’s team released a list of just 74 of the PAC’s self-reported 2,129 donors, leaving too many unanswered questions.
“There is a gaping hole in this government’s election finance reform that has made it far too easy to raise enormous sums of money from anonymous donors before a campaign actually starts.”
READ MORE: New leader David Khan says he’s ready to rebuild Alberta Liberals
Khan said he proposed strict regulations on political action committees in June, which included a ban on corporate and union donations to PACs, setting donation limits and making donations to PACs above $250 public and transparent.
“The NDP government has refused to act,” Khan said.
READ MORE: Alberta NDP looking to cap election spending
“The secrecy surrounding Unite Alberta and the huge sums of money involved in this campaign are deeply troublesome.
“This government needs to act decisively to reduce the impact of big money on our politics so that Albertans can be confident that our democracy cannot be bought and sold.”
READ MORE: Alberta passes bill banning corporate and union donations
Documents show Kenney spent $1.46 million on the leadership contest, which he ultimately won last March. By comparison, his rivals spent much less.
The Elections Alberta documents released Tuesday show Richard Starke spent $162,603; Stephen Khan spent $24,919 on the campaign, and Byron Nelson spent the least at $15,579.
Kenney filed statements showing he received $1.49 million in contributions, $1.3 million of which came from those donating more than $250. The former Calgary MP and federal minister received seven donations worth $26,000.
The Alberta NDP caucus said Kenney has broken a campaign promise by not disclosing all of his campaign donations.
“More than $389,000 of the donations to Kenney’s Unite Alberta PAC have been hidden from Albertans. That makes up 77 per cent of the donations he claims he received. No one from Elections Alberta or any third party has ever reviewed these donations to see if they are in line with the Elections Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act,” the caucus said in a news release Wednesday.
“On Oct. 26, 2016, Kenney’s campaign spokesperson said: ‘We will disclose donor information at the conclusion of the campaign.’ They’ve now broken that promise,” the caucus said.
The NDP caucus also said Kenney has not shown Albertans how he spent the campaign money.
READ MORE: Alberta PCs, Wildrose unveil plans to merge, create United Conservative Party
When asked to respond to the concerns from opposition parties, Kenney’s director of communications said “Jason’s message of unity resonated with Albertans from all walks of life and our fundraising numbers are a reflection of that.”
Blaise Boehmer said totals from both the pre-writ (Unite Alberta) and leadership phases of fundraising reached over $2 million.
“When we first launched our campaign, we made a good faith promise to disclose our donors despite the fact that we were not obligated to,” Boehmer wrote in an email to Global News. “Subsequently, we received a legal opinion advising that consent must be sought under the Privacy Act before disclosing donor details.
“We contacted all of our donors to seek permission; we only released the names of those who agreed in order to comply with the Privacy Act.”
Since becoming leader, Kenney has worked with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean on a plan to merge their teams into the United Conservative Party.
Alberta PC members will vote between July 20 and July 22 on the draft unity agreement with the Wildrose. The results will be announced July 22 – the same day Wildrose announces the results of its unity vote.
READ MORE: Alberta PCs say membership drive on unity vote nets 50,000-plus members
A majority of PC members are needed to ratify the unity plan while more than 75 per cent of Wildrose members have to sign off on it.
Visit Elections Alberta’s website to see the full financial statements.
Jason Kenney 2017 leadership campaign expenses by Anonymous TdomnV9OD4 on Scribd
With files from Global’s Erika Tucker
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