Manitoba Tories in the red after election defeat

It was a political loss that came with a huge price tag.

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party was $851,932 in the hole after being defeated in last October’s election.

Election returns show the party spent $1.4 million on the campaign but took in only $664,663 in contributions and transfers from candidates and constituency associations.

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES The outside of the Manitoba Legislature

The Tories’ two biggest election expenses were advertising ($642,500) and polling ($573,996).

PC party president Brent Pooles said the party will get a refund of 25 per cent of eligible expenses and that will decrease the deficit.

Until 2019, the Elections Finances Act allowed a candidate or party that received at least 10 per cent of the vote to get a 50 per cent rebate on campaign expenses. The law was amended under former PC premier Brian Pallister to allow for a 25 per cent rebate for parties and candidates who get at least five per cent of the vote in an election.

“That’s made things a little difficult, probably, for all parties,” Pooles said Wednesday.

Only the Green Party of Manitoba and the Communist Party didn’t get enough votes to qualify for the refund.

Pooles said he’s not concerned about the election red ink.

“We’ll have a little bit of a deficit to offset, but we have good membership,” the PC party president said.

“People are renewing, we have donor clubs, etc., so we’re not overly concerned about it.”

The Manitoba Liberal Party is also dealing with an election deficit. It reported $138,690 in expenses — including more than $30,000 on advertising and $27,000 on polling. It took in $120,021 in contributions and was left with a $63,099 deficit.

The Manitoba NDP, meanwhile, hasn’t filed its election financial disclosure yet although the deadline was four months after the election.

The New Democrats had an extension until April 2 — the day of the Manitoba budget — then received another extension to April 15.

Party secretary Evan Krosney said Wednesday the Manitoba NDP’s annual financial return and its 2023 election return are being finalized by auditors and will be filed with Elections Manitoba in the coming weeks.

“In addition to our central party’s returns, much of our work over the past few months has been going into support the filing of local campaign returns and assisting candidates’ volunteer official agent,” Krosney said in an email late Wednesday.

“As of today, we currently have more of these local returns filed than any other party.”

Filing a late election return isn’t a great look but likely won’t hurt the NDP, which recent polls suggest is still enjoying a honeymoon with the electorate.

“Most citizens know little or nothing about how parties raise and spend money so there is not much of a political price to be paid for failing to file on time,” said Paul Thomas, University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus.

Minor parties and defeated candidates more frequently file late election finance returns, Thomas said.

Once they’ve missed extension deadlines to file reports, a penalty of $25 per day is meant to apply, he said.

“This is a modest sum for the major parties so the real sanction for failing to comply with deadlines is the potential negative publicity,” Thomas said. He couldn’t say why the NDP is filing its return so late.

“It may be that their headquarters operation — accounting and report writing — was overwhelmed by the surge in new members and donations as the party swept to victory in October,” he said.

Deveryn Ross, who was deputy chief of staff to Pallister, questioned the length of time it’s taking the NDP to file its election financial disclosure.

“There’s no valid excuse for them to need so much extra time,” he said. “It creates suspicion that something’s not right.”

“Beyond that, if they can’t get their return filed on time, how confident should we be about their ability to manage a $24-billion budget? They don’t look terribly competent these days,” said the former PC party insider.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca