The above list shows just how much each member of council spent during the 2011 Civic election and the number of votes they garnered and the cost of each one of those votes in terms of total spent on their campaign.
For Councillor Greves his total election expenses for 2011 when you also add in the cost of his campaign to win the byelection earlier in the year was a whopping $28,900.00 to win a seat on council.
WHERE DO CANDIDATES GET THEIR SUPPORT?
A sore spot with me has always been the fact that candidates do not have to disclose the source of their campaign funding until 120 days after the actual election. I have always been of the opinion that is information that should be made available before the election, for obvious reasons.
The following information is presented for information only, no accusation is made nor implied, readers are left to their own conclusions.
ANDERSON George: Total funds $4285 only notable $500 from Alberta Corp.
BESTWICK Bill: Total funds $6995 with a total from trade unions of $6500.
BRENNAN Diane: Total $10,470 with a total from trade unions of $8,000.
GREVES Ted: 2011 By-election total $12,550 with a total from trade unions of $6500, 2011 General Election total of $16,350 with a total from trade unions of $16,000.
JOHNSTONE Diana: Total funds $4347 mostly from small individual amounts.
KIPP Jim: Total $300 funded entirely by self.
McKAY Bill: Total funds $3172 mostly small individual donations, several modest corp. donations.
PATTJE Fred: Total funds $4647 with a total from self of $2000 balance mostly small individual amounts.
RUTTAN John: Total funds $28,437 with a total from self of $14,132.
This style of election (spend and get elected) is something else that I really think it is time to change. IMHO it should be illegal for candidates to spend ANY money in a campaign. Rather we should have open (televised/recorded/online) community meetings organized such that candidates would openly present their platforms, and answer questions from the public and media. Candidates could have limited printed media and online presence however they should not be permitted to spend more than a token amount for this purpose. NO STUPID SIGNS. The point is that we don't want money influencing the outcome of a vote. Right now it seems that the folks with the most signs have some advantage. That is so high school. I commend Jim Kipp for his approach however why does it have to be the exception?
ReplyDeleteCliff Marcil
Why would trade unions spend $30,000 to elect three councilors ? Seems strange to me .
ReplyDelete