Legal fees take bite out of PC party financial statement

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This article was published 24/06/2022 (1229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba’s annual financial statement was released Friday, showing it raised roughly the same amount in 2021 as the previous year — and had a whopper of a legal bill.

The PCs raised $1,423,768 in contributions in 2021, slightly less than the $1,487,151 received in 2020, the documents say.

Most of the money the Tories raised last year ($861,983) came from individuals who donated $250 or more.

The biggest expense was salaries ($483,640), followed by legal and audit fees. The party spent $279,633 on legal fees in 2021, almost 10 times the amount spent in 2020 ($28,224).

PC premier Brian Pallister resigned in August 2021. The race to replace him as party leader was divisive and the voting result was challenged in court.

After long-time cabinet minister Heather Stefanson eked out a win, former MP Shelly Glover contested the result in Court of Queen’s Bench. The judge later ruled there may have been “irregularities,” but nothing that could have changed the outcome.

The party funds raised in 2021 are significantly less than previous years. In 2018, the PCs pulled in $1.9 million; in 2019 (an election year), more than $2 million was raised.

With the next general election due on or before Oct. 3, 2023, and the Tories trailing the NDP in current polls, the fundraising “malaise” of late is predictable, said University of Manitoba political studies Prof. Christopher Adams.

In 2015, a year ahead of the PCs forming government in 2016, they raised nearly $2.4 million, while the NDP raised $900,000.

“Contributions are a way to measure some sort of support,” Adams said Friday. “We knew in 2015 and 2014 that the NDP was struggling in popularity. People were angry about a provincial sales tax increase and the PCs were in the ascendance.

“I would say right now, there’s a sense of malaise in the general public for the PCs and we see that in the polling data. So I’m not surprised if their financial numbers are are down from some years ago, when when they looked like they’re on the ascendance.”

As for individual donors listed in the documents, one surprising contributor was Patrick Allard, who publicly opposed the province’s COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and ran as an independent in the Fort Whyte byelection.

On Friday, Allard said he made the $521 donation before the PC government’s “mishandling of COVID.”

Stefanson gave the single largest donation to the PC party in 2021, maxing out the $5,000 limit. Stefanson’s husband contributed $3,825, and a combined $3,660 was donated by Stefanson’s family.

Pallister and his wife Esther donated a combined $5,312. Pallister vacated his seat in the legislative assembly Oct. 4.

The second-largest single donation to the party came from Tessa Mostert, who contributed $4,000.

Other notable, major donors include members of the Borger family (founders of development and heavy construction business Ladco Company Inc.), who donated more than $30,000 combined; newly appointed vice-chairman of Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp. and property developer Tim Comack, who contributed $3,750; lawyer and Manitoba Police Commission chairman David Asper, who donated $3,750; and philanthropist and specialty wine store owner Tina Jones, who donated $3,750.

Three Tory MLAs who held seats in 2021 were not listed among those who donated $250 or more: Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen, Riding Mountain MLA Greg Nesbitt, and Selkirk MLA Alan Lagimodiere.

“Cameron Friesen’s 2021 year-end donation was made in early 2022, and therefore had to be attributed to the year in which it was made,” a party spokesperson said Friday night.

The party had received a filing extension “due to a historic PC leadership race and the processing of thousands of new members,” the spokesperson said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca