Tuesday, April 15, 2008

CanWest Global story on NDP fundraising features Tieleman donations but not CanWest Global contributions to BC Liberals

I found it very amusing to read my Sunday Vancouver Province newspaper on April 13 and find an article mentioning me as a 24 hours columnist and BC New Democratic Party contributor.

The story by CanWest News Services was about the NDP's success in raising money from individual donors through monthly contributions and its failure to obtain funds from BC's corporate sector.

To illustrate that trend, the unnamed reporter cited my monthly donations to the NDP and identified me as a columnist with 24 hours.

But what wasn't mentioned was telling.

First of all, there was nothing to tell readers that CanWest Global is a major contributor to the BC Liberal Party, Elections BC showing the company to have given a whopping $50,000 in the 2005 election year to Gordon Campbell's re-election efforts.

I wonder why that wasn't noted?

Second, ironically enough, I am the owner of a BC corporation who supports the NDP.

Lastly, the amount I am listed as giving monthly in the CanWest story was wrong - but it doesn't add up to $50,000!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bill, glad you posted this because I couldn't believe it when I read it.

If the Canwest won't tell it's readers about their own donations to the BC Liberal Party you may as well do it for them next time your on Bill Good's show.

I'm sure the two news outlets share the same audience.

Anonymous said...

The sad thing about these 'attacks' is the number of people who actually believe them. Money for NDP 'bad" but a donation to the present occupants in Victoria is 'good?'

kootcoot said...

Typical Canned Waste tripe - print whatever suits your agenda, leave out the rest and make up anything necessary to say what you need to say to imply things are the way you want them to be.

The Asper Empire seems to be a wing-nut rest home for those too lacking in investigative skills and/or energy to be journalists and not gifted enough as writers to create fiction. Thus the twilight zone of Asper News (sic)! The Zombies of the Written Word are Alive (sort of) and employed at Canned Waste/Glow Ball

Anonymous said...

LOts of ordinary wage earners contribute to political parties and the records show that companies give big bucks to the BC Liberals. I rather doubt that anyone handing over a few dollars a month gets the same kind of attention from a party as one who shows up with 50,000 or so even if it's only once. Many people give a few bucks to the NDP because they believe the party actually tries to help out the poor, elderly and sick folks. some who do support a party really don't like who the leader of the day is and simply wait to see who is the replacement, sometime soon. I'm a firm believer that donations to parties should have a cap on individual donations and with this bunch in power I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever been to China, specially to Tibet, Bill?

Budd Campbell said...

It all goes to show that we need at the provincial level the same donation system we now have federally, where only individual Canadian citizens or landed immigrants can donate to parties or candidates.

Anonymous said...

Why shouldn't this come as a surprise?

On page 125 of 392 pages, one contributor to the BC Liberal Party coffers happened on line "No. 1887" where the guys who paid one billion dollars for a 990 year lease of BC Rails was made by none other than Canadian National Railway Company - David McLean who kicked in $61,530 in 2007

Actually it wasn't 2007, it was five payments (donations) over a period of time starting on April 8th 2005 to September 15th 2005.

November 25, 2003, CNR bought BCR's surface operating assets (locomotives, cars, and service facilities) and the BC Government held onto the ownership of the tracks and right-of-way.

"On Dec. 28, 2003, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Victoria police raided two offices in the British Columbia legislature." - CBC News

Anonymous said...

Gee, Bill, never would have thought you supported the NDP before you were "outed" by Canwest!

I wonder if Phil Hochstein is a closet donor as well?

Budd Campbell said...

"I wonder if Phil Hochstein is a closet donor as well?"


This is the reason neither provincial party has changed the system. It's too much fun pointing to the other side's donors and painting them as wolves gathering at the door to the public trough.

Carole James, by contrast, has said she would change the system provincially, and put it on the same individuals-only basis as the national system. That's the main reason why NDP hard-asses ridicule her as "weak" and want her out as leader, right now! She isn't locked into their old game of business versus labour, to the last man standing, forever and ever, etc., etc.

In the 1990s when Mike Harcourt was Premier there were some changes made to the provincial election financing system to bring it more into line with that national system as the latter stood at that time. But under intense pressure from labour the NDP stopped short on one key requirement that had been in the federal elections expenses rules since the mid-1970s, when David Lewis extracted the first ever election financing laws from the Pierre E Trudeau minority government.

Paid staffers loaned to a campaign by a business or a union would not need to have their time on the campaign "priced" and counted against the expenditure ceilings.

For reasons I simply cannot understand, some in the NDP thought it would be to the party's advantage not to count the value of the experienced, skilled and trained labour donated by unions to the NDP. Any fool can see that business can easily afford to contribute hundreds of times the amount and value of staff time to right wing campaigns that labour can afford to loan to the NDP. So where is the advantage to the NDP of excluding this time from calculations of expenses against the expense limit?

The truth is that the people insisting on excluding this time didn't care which party had the advantage. They only cared about keeping the NDP in a relationship of formal dependence on organized labour for the time of key organizers. Keeping one's own in line, not enabling that political vehicle to keep up with the supposed rival was the motivation.

If Bill Tieleman has any different information, I will be happy to be corrected.

Anonymous said...

canwest global( tokyo rose ) is nothing more than an arm of the liberal party! back in 2005 before the last election --canwest global took over ipsos reid polling -in the press release it went on to say with this new partnership,canwest global media consultants get "special access to ipsos reid pollsters! and just by chance the last ipsos poll came out the day after the federal bi-election! even though the poll was completed a week before---I believe it was another canwest propoganda ploy,considering the ridings in the bi-election were all held by liberals--the liberals lost one in saskatewin and almost lost quadra( the riding in gordon campbells back yard)------I spoke on the bill good show that morning of the poll ---and also on the friday ---I spoke to --baldrey--palmer--and good---and I told them that canwest global owns ipsos reid-the sun the province -chek tv-chorus radio and others---I explained how it was a huge conflict of interest! I guess bill good should have cut me off earlier!---but when I said my bit --boy was baldrey hopping --and vaughn palmer and bill good --they were scrambling as well to take me apart! I sent bill good the poll and other polls-and explained how skewed the poll was!----when I talked to nik nanos of nanos polling --he explained that bc is the hardest province to poll--if you want ndp to be ahead poll the island--liberals poll west van--bill tielman obviously you must have touched another sore spot---and canwest global was trying to paint you as a person who had an axe to grind! the stragegy will backfire in may 2009---people ARE NOT going to vote for the bc liberals,because canwest global and their susiduary ipsos reid polling says that the liberals are going to win--------have faith gordon ( THE GARGLER ) CAMPBELL IS COOKED

Anonymous said...

brian said:

"canwest global took over ipsos reid polling"

You do know that Ipsos is a French firm that is international and is not owned by CanWest Global???

http://www.ipsos-asi.com/

Anonymous said...

just google up ---canwest global and ipsos reid partnership -and read the details!--or http://www.ipsos.na.com/news/. its says with this new partnership canwest media gets "special access to ipsos reids pollsters" canwest globat is clearly a liberal party backer--and considering it owns all the big media--just ask rair mair why he was fired! (because he spoke against the bc liberals)

Anonymous said...

Its getting to a point now of not knowing quite where to put a post. Does it go with "Les a mystery" or here in "fundraising" by the BC Liberals and other political parties.

HEADLINE: "John Les's home under review by Agricultural Land Commission
Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, April 21, 2008
"

Chilliwack Cattle Sales donated $4,530 (Election BC, page 84) to the BC Liberals, not that the party should be blamed from where these monies come from, but perhaps its more of a case of which particular Member of the Legislative Assembly was able to encourage constituents in their ridings to donate, donate, donate.... and for what was expected in return.. Good government, or more? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Anonymous said...

Is this the right place to comment on the Les story? Another contributor to the BC Liberal party coffers is Mr. Les' son-in-law via the Chilliwack Cattle Sales Co., which participated in providing the current home upon which Mr. Les occupies.

HEADLINE: John Les's home under review by Agricultural Land Commission
Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, April 21, 2008