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February 02, 2006
Fumbling towards transparency

Earlier, we reported provincial Liberal Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon's financial agent received at least $61,500 in donations from the real estate development and construction industries, as well as an additional $18,500 from transportation interests. But the only reason we know that is because of a mistake made in his election filings. Under the Elections Act, candidates only have to record the cheques made out specifically to their campaign. Cheques made out to the party, which is usually the form they come in, aren't recorded in their filings. This has the entirely legal effect of disguising who's getting what money from whom. Which is why the press gallery will never be able to put a dollar value on cabinet minister Rich Coleman's legendary fundraising skills. But, in the case of Minister Falcon, his filing accidentally recorded all the cheques his agent received - including those made out to the party - providing an inadvertent glimpse at his pass-the-hat network. That filing has since been amended.

Posted by Sean Holman at 12:13 PM
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Holman wrote...Cheques made out to the party, which is usually the form they come in, aren't recorded in their filings. This has the entirely legal effect of disguising who's getting what money from whom. Which is why the press gallery will never be able to put a dollar value on cabinet minister Rich Coleman's legendary fundraising skills.

Aside from your current partisan kick, as a former NDP staffer, you fail to mention the equally legendary fundraising skills of Shane Simpson who managed to disclose campaign spending over $ 40,000 despite listing political contributions of zero. How about Horgan who had disclosed contributions of $ 1150 and yet managed to spend over $ 50,000. In fact both Adrian Dix and Carole James disclose donations less than $ 20K combined between the two of them and yet somehow they mange to spend a combined sum of $ 100,000

Were you so consumed with Falcon that you neglected to notice ?

Posted by K man on February 3, 2006 12:25 AM

Isn't it just like a liberal to muddy the issue by bringing up the NDP? Perhaps K man can explain how 'friends' of Falcon benefit from Gov't contracts for donations? So what if Dix and James received donations amounting to $100,000 at least it was for a campaign and not to 'buy' favours and contracts. Talk about the kettle calling the pot black.

Posted by Burgess on February 3, 2006 10:00 PM

I doubt that K man's statements are entirely accurate. Can he refer us to specific BC Elections documents?

I think he'll find that the BC NDP made contributions to local candidates after donations were made to the party provincially. So for sources, examine the NDP party statement and then just apportion it to all candidates in accordance with the amounts they received from the provincial party.

But then K man already knows all this, so why waste time?

Posted by Budd Campbell on February 3, 2006 11:46 PM

That's because the K Man is a Liberal. I'll never understand these goddamn Liberals. Blaming everyone else first before they take a hard look at themselves.

And, note to Rich Coleman: you're in the wrong party, buddy. Come over and join the NDP!

Posted by Dagmar on February 4, 2006 05:48 PM

Dagmar, you do know, don't you, that Rich Coleman is the unofficial leader of the pro-life wing of the provincial Liberals?

Posted by Budd Campbell on February 5, 2006 09:41 AM




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