Former PC leader Ches Crosbie funded the party last year with $300,000 in donations

Documents show that Ches Crosbie, the former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, donated $300,000 to the party last year — more than 40% of his overall income — while he was running a drawn-out and contentious election campaign that was thrown into chaos by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite this large injection of money from its leader, the PCs of Newfoundland and Labrador fell from 15 to 13 seats in the House of Assembly, and Premier Andrew Furey’s Liberals won a narrow majority with 22 seats.

Crosbie lost his own Windsor Lake District seat and quit politics days after the results were announced.

When asked why he gave so much of his own money, Crosbie said he wanted to level the playing field with the incumbent Liberals and was a firm believer in his party’s strategy to create jobs and prosperity. in the province.

You could say I put my money where my mouth is.-Ches Crosbie

“I was not going to get anything out of the financial contribution I made except to give the PC Party the chance to take office and implement this program,” he said.

“You could say I put my money where my mouth is.”

“Very worrying”

A political scientist, however, says this is further proof that Newfoundland and Labrador’s election rules need an overhaul.

“I think this is very concerning and unprecedented,” Memorial University professor Russell Williams said of Crosbie’s donation.

Williams thinks it would be difficult to find such a significant donation from an individual to a political party in modern Canadian history.

That’s because the federal government and most other provinces have limits on the amount of donations individuals, businesses and unions can make, he said.

This is not the case in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Essentially, their election campaign was funded by one donor, overall, and that’s really alarming about the state of our democratic institutions and a really sad commentary on the state of our campaign finance laws. here in Newfoundland and Labrador that it’s allowed,” Williams said.

The 2021 audited financial statements of the PC Party available on Elections NL website show that contributions totaled just over $721,000.

The party spent about $670,000 during the campaign.

The documents also include a list of those who donated $100 or more to the party.

Two donations stand out from the others: one of $50,000 and a second of $250,000. Both were from Crosbie, a retired lawyer and member of one of the province’s best-known business and political families.

CBC News spoke to a handful of longtime political insiders who say they have never heard of such large donations by an individual in a single year.

The second largest donation, at $15,000, was from Fortis Inc., when there were eight different donations of $10,000.

No rules were broken

Williams said the political focus of Crosbie’s donations could be tempered by the fact that he was the party leader. He also didn’t break any rules.

However, Williams said, “I still think it’s very problematic because it says that people who have large sums of money have, essentially, additional power or additional influence over the functioning of our democratic institutions.”

The vote was scheduled for February 13, 2021, but the election was upended following a rise in COVID-19 cases in the week before Election Day, and strict new public health measures were invoked. the day before the scheduled vote. .

In-person voting was cancelled, mail-in ballots were distributed, and the results were not finally known until March 27, making it the longest campaign on record.

The fallout from the controversial election continues, with three legal challenges to the results still before the courts and speculation swirling about a secret report that alleges harassment and intimidation at Elections NL.

Prior to the campaign, the PCs announced that they would limit their fundraising efforts to reduce the risk of the virus spreading.

Crosbie said it’s already difficult for opposition parties to attract donations “because they’d rather give their money to the ruling party in hopes of gaining some sort of favor or advancement.”

So Crosbie said he felt the need to open his own wallet.

“We probably wouldn’t have done as well,” Crosbie said when asked if his money made a difference.

“You don’t run a political party on steamers. So if I hadn’t made that personal contribution, we would have had a much lesser opportunity to get our message across.”

Crosbie’s successor, acting PC leader David Brazil, said he was aware Crosbie had made a significant contribution to the party last year. But he didn’t know the details until Elections NL released the audited statements.

“We were lucky to have a leader who was committed to this party, but more importantly, committed to the people of this province, that he was able to put his own money into making sure there was an alternative to the Liberal Party and that we could go across the province and get our message out to people and hear [voters] on the type of government they wanted,” Brazil said.

After the election, there were strong calls for electoral reform in the province, and the Liberals set up an all-party committee with a mandate to modernize the Elections Act.

Crosbie agrees that changes are needed and feels the process is taking too long.

As for his future, Crosbie, 69, does not rule out a return to politics, despite two unsuccessful provincial elections.

“I’m just going to say that I love seeing a finished job that I started,” he said.

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