Angry in the Great White North

Last week, incoming Liberal Party president Alfred Apps created a controversy when he sent an email out to wealthy Liberal donors that read in part:

Each donor/purchaser can donate up to $2,200, paying up to $1,100 by cheque or credit card to the Liberal Party of Canada and $1,100 to the "Liberal Party of Canada (Michael Ignatieff)".  The Ignatieff Campaign account is in surplus and any surplus automatically reverts to LPC under the Elections Act.

The implication is clear.  Michael Ignatieff doesn't need the money.  His fund is in surplus, and there is no actual campaigning, since he will be acclaimed as leader.  So by donating to the leadership fund is a way of donating extra money to the Liberal Party, above the legal limits.

Alfred Apps said that was a misintepretation.  But I have emails from Liberals who said that's exactly what they understood Apps to be saying (and that they thought it was brilliant idea).  People started to ask questions.

Michael Ignatieff's people pushed back, and they argued that even though there are no other contenders for the party leadership, there will be costs.  What costs?  None of our business, apparently:

Although there is only one candidate for the Leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, Michael Ignatieff's campaign continues to incur expenses that remain his sole responsibility until the campaign concludes at the Biennial Convention in May.

All campaign donations and expenses will be made public through Elections Canada. The campaign does not expect to run a surplus.

We'll find out after the campaign is done.  And they don't expect a surplus.  If there is one, it'll be a happy surprise.

Right.  There was enough concern that Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has asked Elections Canada to look into how the Ignatieff leadership campaign fund is being used.

Well, at least it's just Michael Ignatieff's leadership campaign fund that causes some people to be suspicious.

Or maybe not.  Bob Rae is still raising funds, and he's out of the race altogether!

Donate

Although Bob's campaign leadership campaign is over, we incurred expenses in putting together an extremely hard working and dedicated team and in getting Bob out to as many places across Canada as we could.

Your donation still matters. The sooner we can settle our costs, the sooner Bob can start helping raise funds for the Liberal Party. Every little bit will help. Donating is easy and secure - it only takes a few minutes to fill out the donation form.

The maximum contribution you can make to Bob's leadership campaign is $1,100. If you reach that limit you can still help by donating a maximum of $1,100 per year to Bob's riding association and an additional $1,100 per year to the Liberal Party of Canada. Learn more about contribution limits.

Remember that your donation is eligible for a generous tax credit. Learn more about tax credits.

DONATE NOW TO BOB'S CAMPAIGN

You can also donate to Bob's Toronto Centre riding association by clicking here. The $1,100 contribution limit to the Toronto Centre riding association is separate from the $1,100 contribution limit to Bob's leadership campaign.

If it weren't for Alfred Apps' original email, I don't think I would look at this twice.  But now I wonder.  The blurb on the web page makes no mention of the $90,000 deposit that contenders had to pay to the Liberal Party by February 27.  Bob Rae dropped out in December, so he might never have paid the deposit, or not in full.  The text suggests that the only costs incurred by Bob Rae's campaign were salaries for a campaign team, and plane tickets for Bob Rae's trips.

The text also suggests that Bob Rae is trying to "settle our costs", in other words, just raise what is needed to pay off the bills.  There is no suggestion that the donations ought to keep coming in so that they can be rolled over to the party in May when the leadership non-campaign ends.

That's very commendable.  How about making it simpler for all us to know how much is needed by printing a goal and the progress to that goal on the web page?  That's can't be too hard, can it?

Because if Bob Rae doesn't let us know how much is needed to settle costs, I'm worried that someone might think that Bob Rae's leadership fund is being used as another back door for extra donations to the Liberal Party, purposely accruing a surplus for a fund that cannot possibly be incurring any new costs between now and the convention in May.

I doubt Bob Rae would want his fund to be used this way, being an honest guy, but because of the unfortunate confusion created by Alfred Apps, because of the response from some Liberals that suggested that they agreed with the allegedly mistaken idea of maximizing funds in this manner, that is, by using funds for dormant leadership campaigns as a donation multiplier, and because of the reticence from Michael Ignatieff's leadership campaign to explain exactly what the funds are needed for and how flush the fund currently is, Bob Rae might do well to take this opportunity to clear away the confusion about just how much money a non-candidate like himself really needs, and exactly when the donations can stop coming in.

Check out other stories from the Liberal Leadership Fund Donations archive.