Danielle Smith takes UCP fundraising to new heights, and Alberta NDP hits red ink

Rachel Notley's NDP beat the United Conservative Party in political fundraising for a long time before the last election in Alberta – a dramatic reversal of expectations about which party was the power of big money.

That stretch appears to have ended in the Daniel Smith era.

UCP has been the top money maker two years in a row and comes in with $1 million in the bank from last year. The NDP is $624,000 in debt, wiping out a significant pre-campaign war chest for 2024, according to recent Alberta election information.

It's a reversal of fortunes from 2019, when then-UCP leader Jason Kenney won the election but began the march to the next election far behind the NDP in the race for cash.

Now, by 2027, the New Democrats are likely to get worse before they get better in the post-Notley era.

Its reasons are twofold. First, candidates in the NDP leadership race will garner most of the progressive donor dollars on offer in Alberta. This year's $5,000 donation limit means that if someone gives the maximum to Jodi Kalahu Stonehouse, they can't give a cent to the party.

And then there's Smith himself, who has proven a superior fundraising leader than his UCP predecessors Notley or Kenney. In the 2022 leadership race, Smith beat a field including former Treasury Secretary Travis Toews.

Kenney's weak fundraising years during the COVID pandemic appear to be a sign of frustration among the UCP's grassroots, as his party's contributions have fallen and NDP contributions have been high.

But now Smith has brought disgruntled conservatives home and turned the party's finances around, riding on the party's electoral resurgence and its election results.

Last year, his party broke provincial records by raising $10.4 million. (However, the NDP beat Kenney's best UCP years by more than $9 million between the election period and the remainder of 2023.)

Last year's United Conservative Party total will be even larger, as Elections Alberta has yet to release financial statements for the UCP driver's association. And the New Democrats raise money only at the central party level.

With many NDP dollars going to leadership campaigns in the first months of 2024, Smith appears to be pulling blockbusters from fundraising dinners.

Last week, he hosted about 1,400 people at an auditorium in Calgary's Stampede Park, at $500 a pop.

Add to that another big dinner in Red Deer last month and an upcoming party in Edmonton that sold more than 1,000 tickets, and UCP could clear $1 million in three nights.

Another indicator of relative party support is the line item in the Election Alberta report. UCP reported $306,056 in membership dues; The NDP received just $41,323.

The fact that the NDP ended last year in debt is even more interesting when you consider that they entered 2023 with $5.5 million in the bank, compared to $2.9 million for the UCP, who had months to raise funds under Smith before the election year.

But Notley covered that money with heavy pre-campaign advertising spending, including buying time for a special commercial. During the Academy Awards.