Former B.C. United candidates raise questions about party's handling of finances (2024)

A week after B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon’s backroom deal with the B.C. Conservatives, several of his former candidates are complaining about how the party is handling its finances and some wonder whether they will be paid back for money they spent early on in their campaigns.

Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton, who had been the party’s candidate for Vernon-Lumby and is now planning to run as an Independent, told Postmedia News that he spent roughly $12,000 of his own money to rent a campaign office and pre-pay for print and radio media advertising and now expects to be made whole by the party through the transferring of local campaign donations.

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“Because the party was holding all the money and hadn’t released it to our campaign committees yet, the only way we could do business was to direct pay for things,” he said. “I expect that I’ll see some money back at some point, but I’ll say I’m cautiously optimistic because now that I’ve announced my intentions are to run as an Independent, I’m sure they won’t be in a hurry to get that money back to me.”

Acton said he had a casual conversation with United executive director Lindsay Coté following last week’s announcement, during which he was verbally told he would be reimbursed for the expenses he incurred while a candidate for the party.

Coté wasn’t available for comment Wednesday, but her promise has been echoed by B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon who said that remaining party finances will be used to pay all outstanding debts, including to vendors, staff and candidates.

The concern among many, however, is that the party doesn’t have enough cash left in the bank to cover everything that it owes.

While Falcon has refuted this allegation, Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier, West Vancouver-Capilano candidate Karin Kirkpatrick, Delta South MLA Ian Paton and others have all confirmed that they have been blocked from viewing any of their local fundraising accounts.

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Bernier said he wouldn’t be surprised to hear the party has mostly run out of money given how their fundraising totals had started to plummet just as United started to spend aggressively on ads.

Bernier also revealed he had raised around $60,000 for his local campaign but now has to start from scratch given he will be running as an Independent.

“All I was told is I don’t have access to the money anymore, party money. They get to use it for paying off vendors, paying off staff, paying off bills,” he said. “As for how much will be left over at the end of the day, I have no idea.”

Bernier expects it will take about $30,000 to run a fully funded campaign in Peace River South, which is an ambitious goal given the election is only 45 days away as of Wednesday but one Bernier feels is doable.

The only Independent to come out on top in a provincial race since 1949 was Vicki Huntington in 2009 and 2013. In the 2013 race, Huntington raised $74,345 and spent $70,456. This was significantly less than her B.C. Liberal opponent, Bruce McDonald, who spent $106,816.

“I’m lucky up here, I’ve never had to run a full hardcore campaign with a lot of media, like Lower Mainland candidates have to do. A lot of mine is door-to-door and on Facebook,” said Bernier, who said he expects to reach his fundraising target soon. “The minute I announced that I was running as an Independent, the cheques started coming in and it looks like I am going to be probably close to fully funded by the end of the week to continue running my campaign as an Independent.”

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Andrew Watson, Elections B.C. senior director of communications, said in a statement that while provincial election law prevents parties from transferring funds between one another, such as from United to the Tories, it doesn’t dictate what parties can do internally with their finances.

“The Election Act does not require a party to return political contributions if the party suspends its campaign,” he said. “B.C. United remains a registered political party and can use its funds in accordance with the Election Act (to incur election expenses such as election advertising, for example).”

What the Act does do is prevent United from transferring campaign funds to Independent candidates.

Even if what the party is doing is perfectly legal, Kirkpatrick said she takes issue with what she says is United leadership openly misleading candidates and donors that they were fundraising for the party when really there were plans being made to drop out.

She said she had been urging her friends and family to donate with the belief that there was a path forward to preserve a centrist alternative to the NDP and Conservatives in B.C.

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“I would not be out fundraising if I knew it was to pay outstanding bills, as opposed to build a party for an election,” explained Kirkpatrick. “They cut off all of our access to our financials, took all the money out of our account, and so they better be intending to make all these candidates whole who’ve already made financial commitments to offices, they’ve paid for signs, which, of course, they’re going to go in the dump now, and now the money’s gone.”

Ernie Klassen, former B.C. United candidate for Surrey South, said there have been rumours the party is fully bankrupt and he wants to see an independent audit carried out on United’s finances. He said he has sunk a few thousand dollars into the campaign and all of his requests for information to the party have been ignored.

He said he would also like for Falcon to call each candidate personally, saying he owes them at least that much.

“A week ago, we were told that there was a couple hundred thousand dollars in the bank,” Klassen told Postmedia. “I’m feeling a bit betrayed, and I feel like there needs to be an audit of where the money went to so that the whole membership actually knows what happened.”

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