Stephen Taylor, Author at Stephen Taylor

Update: Ok, we’re corporate whores too (albeit less so), but check out the NDP!

Looks like I jumped the gun a little on displaying Mike Brock’s infographic as the truth, but in his defence, it was a result more of poor methodology than deceit. Mike took the numbers from 2003 and 2004 and put them together. The Conservative Party didn’t largely exist until 2004 and thus Mike should have added up the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative numbers. I’ve done that below. Further, bill C-24 limited individual and corporate contributions for 2004. So, I’ve done the numbers for 2003 and I’ve presented them below.

After my own research, these are the numbers that I came up with:

Liberal Party of Canada top donors.

$2,974,341.20 55555 Inc. (Paul Martin Leadership Fund)
$172,781.14 Canadian National Rail Company (Corporation)
$148,257.17 Bombardier (Corporation)
$135,889.00 Grant Forest Products (Corporation)
$111,750.50 Bell Canada (Corporation) (Including BCE and Bell Globemedia)
$106,055.65 Kruger Inc. (Corporation)
$105,892.00 EnCana Corporation (Corporation)
$104,726.70 SNC-Lavalin (Corporation)
$100,000.00 Donald Meehan (Individual)
$95,000.00 Power Corporation (Corporation)

Conservative Party of Canada top donors:

$91,703.9 Scotiabank (Corporation)
$70,976.64 Magna International (Corporation)
$45,000 Power Corporation (Corporation)
$41,015.34 Bank of Montreal (Corporation)
$59,655.79 Bell Canada (including BCE and Bell Globemedia) (Corporation)
$35,404.10 Telus Corporation (Corporation)
$28,359.02 McCarthy Tétrault (Corporation)
$25,000 CanWest Global Communications Corporation (Corporation)
$22,820.00 Canadian Alliance Lethbridge Constituency Association (Non-profit organization)
$20,000.00 George Weston (Individual)

and… holy crap, check out the NDP…

New Democratic Party top donors:

$909,775.00 CEP (Trade Union)
$775,919.60 UFCW Canada (Trade Union)
$823,289.60 CAW (Trade Union)
$374,789.68 CUPE (Trade Union)
$791,064.34 USWA (Trade Union)
$252,619.60 OPSEU (Trade Union)
$219,440.00 Canadian Labour Congress (Trade Union)
$205,900.00 IAM & AW (Trade Union)
$159,850.00 SEIU (Trade Union)
$105,246.40 Ontario Eng Catholic Teacher’s Association (Trade Union)

So, whenever somebody tells you that the Conservatives are influenced too much by “Big Business”, show them that the Liberals receive significantly more in cold cash contributions from corporations. Also, look at the NDP numbers. “Big Unions” have a significantly greater political influence on the NDP than “Big Business” ever had on the Liberals or Conservatives. A substantial problem is that as a union member, one doesn’t have much control over which political party to which their union dues are donated. As a corporate shareholder, however, one can always sell their shares.

Corporate Whores

Check out the mass-media quality infographic of the blog-media quality research that Mike Brock has done:

Brock on the Attack

Cross-posted to Blogging Tories

DND: Tory military plan inexpensive and feasible

One more time…

David Pugliese yesterday in the Ottawa Citizen reported:

“During the June election campaign, the Conservatives proposed acquiring a fleet of such long-range transport planes, prompting the Defence Department to analyse the feasibility of the party’s promise. It concluded that not only was such a proposal doable, but also that most of the cost of acquiring four to six C-17s could be paid for from within the existing military budget. “

Canada has rented Russian-owned Antonovs to transport the DART team to the tsunami striken peripheral countries of the Indian ocean.

But defence planners have warned that in an emergency it may not always be possible to rent Antonovs. During the 1998 ice storm that paralysed much of eastern Canada, U.S. military transport planes were used to ferry supplies, said military analyst Alain Pellerin of the Conference of Defence Associations.

Canadians who are worried of too many episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond” compared to the number episodes of “Train 48” that air on Global television need to realize that the national agenda of maintaining our sovereignty in the face of American influence is better served in having and maintaining a military for use during domestic and international disasters.

We need a military that we can be proud of, one that can protect us, and one that can maintain our so-called international reputation for peace-keeping and international humanitarian efforts around the globe.