Analysis: ABC spent far more on radio and newspaper advertising than all other parties combined.
On its way to electing every one of its candidates in last year’s election, ABC Vancouver outspent its chief rival, the incumbent mayor’s party, by almost 2-to-1.
Campaign finance disclosures released this week by Elections B.C. show that A Better City Vancouver, or ABC, raised far more money than any other Vancouver party before last year’s election, and spent a combined total of $2.09 million. It was the first campaign for ABC, a new party that swept to power with Mayor Ken Sim elected to office along with all it seven candidates for council, six for park board and four for school board.
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Meanwhile, then-mayor Kennedy Stewart started his own party called Forward Together to run for re-election with six council candidates. The disclosures show Forward Together spent a total of $1.09 million on the election. Stewart finished second to Sim in the mayor’s race, and none of the Forward Together council candidates were elected.
While previous Vancouver elections featured corporations, unions and wealthy individuals cutting huge cheques to support their preferred parties, the B.C. NDP government banned corporate and union donations in 2017 and limited personal donations.
While the annual limit last year was $1,250 a person, fundraising and spending for the mayoral, council and park board races are separate from those for school board. That means one donor — and in some cases, several of their children and family members — could give $1,250 to ABC for the mayoral, council and park board campaign, and another $1,250 to ABC’s school board campaign.
Funds raised for school board must be spent to support school trustee candidates, and not for the party’s mayoral candidate. But a party like ABC, with candidates in every race, can get its name and logo on more signs and advertisements than a party like Forward Together, which ran no school board candidates.
During the election period between Sept. 17 and election day Oct. 15, much of ABC’s spending was on their effort to win what campaigners call the “air war.” Not counting spending on the school board campaign, ABC spent $110,652 on radio advertising and $37,901 on newspaper and periodical ads during the election period, more than 20 times as much as Forward Together, the Greens, OneCity and TEAM spent on radio and print advertising combined in that period.
The Greens elected two councillors and a park board candidate, OneCity elected one councillor, and none of TEAM’s candidates were successful.
During the election period, ABC also spent another $77,002 on promotional materials including brochures and buttons, not including the school board race, far exceeding any other party.
One area where other parties did outspend ABC during the election period was social media: While ABC spent only $5,903 on social media during that period, TEAM tripled that, spending $15,809 on social media.
The Non-Partisan Association, a once-dominant party that failed to get any candidates elected last year, spent $71,729 on social media during the election campaign — more than 13 times the total spent by the victorious ABC.
dfumano@postmedia.com
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