"So it becomes a little bit of a nonsense"

From the figures May has selected, it appears that the debt is simply being rolled over, with a small amount of actual paydown. The key issue really is the same for the Greens as it is for the Liberals and the NDP. How are they adjusting to the new world of individual donors only, with a limit of $1,100 per year per donor, $2,200 if you count local as well as national contributions. My guess is that the Greens, like the Liberals, tended to rely on a smaller number of larger donors than have the NDP or the Tories, and that their style has been severely crimped by the Accountability Act which reduced the ceiling down to just $1,000, a move Liberal Senators opposed as hard as they could.

You have to pay off loans completely within 3 years, so you have to have the revolving loan going on.

While we have relied on a few loans in the past, we're not as hurting as the Liberals, because more Greens are thrifty and don't believe in large budget campaigns.

If Harper wants to make a real difference, he should cut in half the amount that parties can spend.

Dan, I don't think that the amounts that are allowable at the electoral district level are out of line with reality. However, national campaigns could well be cheaper.

I still suspect that a statistical analysis of Green donors would show higher average amounts coming from better off individuals.

"If Harper wants to make a real difference, he should cut in half the amount that parties can spend."

Not a very good idea.

It would affect how many Cokes and Pizzas we could
buy for the campaign workers in the office. If
we didn't have the usual amount of pizzas and cokes, the volunteers would walk out in an instant, and the politicians would have a difficult time getting elected.