Big donors, slow disclosure bring back 'Wild West' to Calgary election campaigns

More than two years after Calgary's last municipal election, it seems provincial efforts to modernize local campaign financing remain controversial.

There is more paperwork for participants. And greater transparency for voters is there. But other legislation — Alberta's freedom of information law — was needed to actually get it.

Last week, CBC News reported that it took a directive from Alberta's information and privacy commissioner to get the City of Calgary to release the full list of donors to third-party advertisers (TPAs) that were active in the 2021 municipal election. And that decision occurred only because the CBC had to file a freedom of information request for that disclosure, and fought the city's initial resistance.

The donor lists reveal who was behind the 176 financial contributions to eight registered TPAs, how much they gave and when. The disclosures mirror the documents that municipalities release after elections about donations to candidates.

But candidates' financial data was publicly released five months after the 2021 election. The city redacted the identities of donors listed on the TPA disclosures, citing privacy concerns and other exemptions under the freedom of information legislation, until the privacy commissioner directed officials to undo the redactions.

Under provincial rules, only individuals can contribute to political candidates, with donations capped at $5,000. Campaigns are barred from accepting corporate and union donations.

However, individuals, companies or unions can donate up to $30,000 to a TPA, which is a group allowed to advertise for and against candidates or issues but cannot directly co-ordinate with candidates' campaigns.

And that's exactly what the full list of donors — now available long after the 2021 election — lays out for all to see.

You can read the lists of donors for all eight TPAs here:

For one political operative, it's almost like the days before provincial financing rules for local elections were put in place in recent years.. 

Back then, municipal votes were considered the "Wild West of politics" when it came to fundraising. There were locally set bylaws on financial disclosure, but they were among Canada's weakest.

Stephen Carter, president of Decide Campaigns, was the manager for Jyoti Gondek in the last mayoral election.

"We are (back) in the Wild West days, just with more paperwork and a smaller group of people who understand the rules," said Carter.

Carter pointed out that while TPAs must disclose who is funding their efforts to lobby for or against political candidates, voters don't get to see that information until a few months after the election.