Corporate donations dominated councillor funding
August 29, 2006

Individuals provided less than one-quarter of the campaign donations to sitting council members in their most recent election campaigns. Corporations, on the other hand, provided more than two-thirds of the $160,000 collected by the twelve councillors who accepted donations.

Eight councillors relied on corporations to provide at least 70 percent of their campaign donations, while five of the other seven took no corporate money at all. The statistics are drawn from the lists of donations over $100 that candidates are required to file with the city clerk. The sources of smaller donations are not released and are excluded from these calculations.

Bill Kelly and Maria Pearson relied most heavily on corporate donations which accounted for 87 percent of the donations to Kelly and 85 percent of those given to Maria Pearson. Chad Collins and Sam Merulla each reported 77 percent of their funds came from corporate donors. The numbers for Terry Whitehead were 75 percent, while Tom Jackson and Bernie Morelli stood at 73 percent.

Merulla's high numbers came despite providing 14 percent of his donations from his own pocket. That left him with the lowest percentage of donations from individuals – only one percent. Kelly took 4 percent from individuals and Pearson and Whitehead 9 percent each, while the others listed above got 13-18 percent of their donations from individuals.

Union donations provided from 7 to 10 percent of the donations to all but one of these councillors. The exception was Terry Whitehead who took 16 percent of his funds from unions. Glanbrook councillor Dave Mitchell was acclaimed in 2003, but reported taking one donation. That was from a construction company, meaning that 100 percent of his donations were from corporate sources.

Phil Bruckler covered 60 percent of his own costs, got 35 percent from corporations, and the remaining 5 percent from individuals. Bob Bratina reported 58 percent of his funds came from individual donors, 18 percent from corporate sources and 17 percent from unions, with Bratina kicking in the remaining 7 percent himself.

Dave Braden, Margaret McCarthy and Murray Ferguson each covered all their costs out of their own pockets, and did not accept donations from any other source. Two others – Brian McHattie and Art Samson – relied entirely on individual donations. Nearly 60 percent of individual donations went to Bratina or McHattie, with the latter accounting for more than one-third of the total.

The Bratina and Samson totals are from the October 2004 by-election when they were first elected. The donation numbers for all other councillors are from the general city elections held in November 2003.

In dollar amounts, corporations provided $108,279, unions gave $15,155, and individuals donated $35,893. Personal contributions by the councillor or their spouse totalled $39,194. When personal donations are excluded from the calculations, individuals provided just 22.5 percent of the donations. Corporations gave 68 percent and unions contributed the other 9.5 percent.

Five of the councillors pulled in corporate donations in excess of $15,000, with Sam Merulla topping the list at just over $20,000. The other four were Collins, Kelly, Morelli and Jackson. Individual donations ranged from $3900 for Morelli to $300 for Merulla.

Chart providing the donation totals and the percentages in each category: