Year-end financial returns show New Brunswick Liberals beat Tories in donations

Liberal Leader Susan Holt speaks to reporters at the New Brunswick Legislative Building after the government delivered the throne speech after many weeks of speculation of a snap election call, in Fredericton, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Ward

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick's Liberals ended 2023 with a bigger war chest than the Progressive Conservatives, with a provincial election months away.

Year-end reports filed this week by the parties to Elections New Brunswick show that Liberals had a surplus of $319,585 and the Progressive Conservatives a surplus of $254,035.

For the 2023 year, the Liberals beat the Tories in fundraising, collecting a total of $539,081 in contributions, with the Progressive Conservatives amassing $423,355.

Green Party year-end financial returns were not yet uploaded to the Elections New Brunswick website.

The provincial election has to be held by Oct. 21, 2024, but Tory Premier Blaine Higgs has not officially said when he would call voters to the polls.

Tom Bateman, chair of the political science department at St. Thomas University, said while the Liberals are in good shape and have more assets than Higgs's party, the Progressive Conservatives are not doing that badly either.

"The Liberals are in a fairly good position going into the campaign .... The Conservatives are not in as bad a position as I thought they would be," he said in an interview.

"It sometimes happens you're not in an election year, the party you support is in government, so you don't need to support them a lot, because they're already in the driver's seat and yet, the Tories have been pretty good at raising money in an off year, even as they're in government. So that's why I was surprised."

Bateman noted the stronger fundraising profile of the Liberals, with the party collecting more money on roughly the same number of contributions as the Tories, "which means that the average Liberal party contributor was giving a bit more money than the average Conservative contributor."

The typical Progressive Conservative supporter, Bateman said, might be "a bit lower income" than the typical Liberal supporter.

The Tories had 33 out-of-province contributions, for a total of $13,655, and the Liberals had fewer than 10, totalling $5,300.

Mario Levesque, associate professor at Mount Allison University's department of politics and international relations, said he was not surprised by the out-of-province contributions for the Progressive Conservatives, especially considering the party "brought in people from out West to help their campaign and also have appealed to westerners -- right wing -- for help."

Steve Outhouse, who managed Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's election campaign last year, was brought in by Higgs to handle the Tory campaign.

The executive director of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, Doug Williams, said out-of-province funds have no undue influence in New Brunswick politics. The Tories, he said, collected 794 donations in 2023 of $100 or more, adding that 33 of them came from outside the province.

"New Brunswickers want a government that will make life more affordable and not put the province back in the red, and they are donating to help make that happen," he said in an email.

"Our fundraising efforts in 2023 were strong and continue to be strong as we get closer to the election."

Hannah Fulton Johnston, executive director of the New Brunswick Liberal Association, said they were not looking for out-of-province donations, nor are they actively seeking them.

"(Liberal Leader Susan Holt) has already committed to banning out-of-province donations if elected," she said. "The small percentage of donations we do receive from out of province are largely from expat New Brunswickers, family and friends -- which is well within the scope of the current provincial political financing laws."

Fundraising is going "very well," and the Liberals are seeing support "from all corners of the province," Johnston said.

"New Brunswickers are responding positively to our message of needing a change in leadership and government."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 12, 2024.

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