PC leadership candidates received more than $85K in donations

The P.E.I. Progressive Conservative Party leadership candidates received a total of $85,697 in donations during the party's recent leadership campaign. 

A list of all donations received by the three candidates — the new Leader Rob Lantz, James Aylward and Darlene Compton — was released by the party Tuesday.

Individual donations ranged from $5 up to $6,666.

The list does not break down how much each candidate received or who received contributions from whom.

But Lantz says about half the money went to his campaign.

Lantz says public disclosure of campaign financing is an important principle of democracy.

"There's nothing to hide. You go through the list, you see some long-time party supporters. People who understand that the democratic process requires the public to step forward and help fund these expensive campaigns," said Lantz.

"But transparency, accountability, openness has been talked about a lot over the last few months."

The disclosure goes beyond what's required under P.E.I. law.

Premier Wade MacLauchlan produced a similar list while his leadership campaign was underway. He also limited donations to a maximum of $300. There is no limit under provincial laws.

But some say it's time to reform P.E.I.'s election finance laws, to put to rest even the appearance that big contributions might be used to buy political favour.

Liberals have raised nearly $900K

"Specifically limiting the amount that individuals can contribute and also, I think, ruling out corporate and union donations to political parties, I think they should be banned outright," said Peter McKenna, University of Prince Edward Island political science professor.

"It's just the optics of it, the perception of impropriety. If businesses or individuals are contributing substantial sums of money to political parties here on Prince Edward Island, there's a reason why they're doing that. At least that's the perception. So even if it looks harmless and innocuous, the voter's going to say 'What do they want in exchange for that?'"

All donations received by all three campaigns of more than $250 are published through Elections PEI, but that information would not be publicly available before the next provincial election, which is expected to be called in a matter of days.

Since the last election, the Liberals have raised $868,000, more than twice as much as the Tories at $376,000.

The NDP has raised $89,000, the Island Party $3,700 and the Green party $3,100. Those figures include donations from 2012 and 2013. 2014 numbers are not yet available.

Parties will be allowed to spend about $1.1 million each in the next election.

Lantz says his party won't be able to raise that much.

He says there should be a cap on donations, but isn't prepared at this point to put a number on that.

Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker would like to see the rules tightened even further, banning corporate donations and donations from non-residents, which are currently allowed under P.E.I.'s Election Expenses Act.