In the first months since the United Conservative Party government returned corporate donations to provincial politics , Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s party raised more than $471,000 from injury lawyers, car dealers and other businesses, making up more than one-quarter of all UCP donations in the latest period.
Those corporate contributions total more than the $437,000 fundraising gap between the United Conservatives ($1.63 million) and the NDP ($1.19 million) in this year’s third quarter, according to newly released figures from Elections Alberta.
Legislation by the Smith government brought back corporate and union contributions starting this July after a ban on that practice, which the former NDP government had enacted in 2015.
The UCP has leveraged this new rule far more than their chief opposition. Between July and September, New Democrats raised $7,100 from six corporations — and nothing from trade unions — compared to nearly a ha
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