What are we to make of that “mysterious cash surge” in donations to the Republican Party of Alberta just before the June by-election in the Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills riding in June of 2025?
At the time, RPA Leader Cameron Davies was running in the by-election to replace former United Conservative Party MLA Nathan Cooper, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, who had resigned his seat to take up duties as Alberta’s trade representative in the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C.*
Earlier this week, The Toronto Star reported that in the spring of 2025, money began to pour into the coffers of the RPA. “In the first half of 2025, donors gave nearly $190,000 – a remarkable jump for a party that reported zero contributions the year before,” said the Star’s report.
“The money came from fewer than 50 people, with more than half of them handing over $5,000, the maximum amount allowed under Alberta rules,” the story continued.
The Star’s reporters, as often happens in such journalistic investigations, accumulated a lot of interesting facts, but were unable to provide many insights into what the heck was actually going on, or what the motivations of some of the donors may have been. Interestingly, a couple of apparently politically polyamorous British Columbia donors once had a connection with the B.C. NDP.
In the event, by the way, the UCP candidate in the by-election, Tara Sawyer, won with a clear majority of the vote. New Democrat Beverley Toews placed second, and Mr. Davies third.
So what does all this mean? Not clear. In the end we are left with more dots than lines connecting them.
At least four of the donations appear to have been made by people who live outside Alberta, the newspaper reported, which is clearly illegal here. Mr. Davies told the Star, in the reporters’ words, “that to his knowledge, anyone who contributed using an out of province address was ‘not permitted’ to donate.” So was the money returned, as required by law? Presumably the Star asked. It provided no answer.
Elections Alberta, as we are coming to expect, was unhelpful, telling the reporters it does not comment on parties’ financial disclosures – which may be a rule, but under the circumstances is hardly reassuring.
I asked Lorne Gibson about this. The former Alberta Election Commissioner was fired by Jason Kenney’s version of the UCP in November 2019, supposedly to save money but obviously because he had too effectively enforced the law when he investigated campaign financing violations by some of Mr. Kenney’s supporters in the party’s leadership race. He now runs an election consulting business in Manitoba.
“I would say from the sketchy details that least some of the donations themselves would appear to be illegal,” Mr. Gibson observed. “Some of the contributors appear to be prohibited contributors due to residency alone.”
Beyond that, he added, “based on the pattern of when all of these contributions came in and the amounts, I would also be looking at a possible violation of s. 34(1) of the Act.”
That section of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act states that “A person or entity must not contribute to a registered party, registered constituency association, registered prospective candidate association, registered candidate or registered leadership contestant (a) funds not belonging to the person or entity, or (b) funds given to the person or entity for the purpose of making a contribution to that registered party, registered constituency association, registered prospective candidate association, registered candidate or registered leadership contestant.”
“It is also illegal for a registered political party to accept prohibited contributions and incumbent upon them to refuse to accept them, to report them to the (Chief Electoral Officer) and to return them to the contributor or to the CEO if the contributor cannot be identified,” Mr. Gibson said.
“I always felt that there was something wrong with returning prohibited contributions to the contributor,” he commented. “I felt that these funds should be forfeited. However, because the law required parties to return prohibited funds to the contributor, I would usually penalize the prohibited contributor an amount equal to the prohibited contribution so that there was some sort of penalty for the illegal activity. Otherwise there would not have been any consequence.”
One doubts we can be confident Elections Alberta will now do the same if a case can be made.
In May 2019, Mr. Gibson’s office levied fines adding up to $12,000 against Mr. Davies for six separate offences related to irregular campaign contributions to the UCP leadership campaign of candidate Jeff Callaway, Global News reported at the time.
Mr. Davies was then manager of Mr. Callaway’s campaign. “In February, Davies was fined $15,000 by the election commissioner for two counts of obstruction of an investigation,” the Global story also said.
“Callaway’s leadership bid has been dogged by allegations it was a kamikaze campaign with the sole purpose of targeting Kenney’s main opponent, Brian Jean. Callaway ultimately dropped out of the race and threw his support behind Kenney,” that story stated.
Elections Alberta also admitted in April this year it was investigating unauthorized online publication of the RPA’s copy of the Alberta List of Electors by a company called The Centurion Project Ltd., effectively doxxing 2.9 million Albertans.
Can we now have confidence that Elections Alberta – understaffed, underfunded and beleaguered by the UCP’s determination to hold a highly contentious separation referendum and nine additional MAGA-influenced policy referenda on Oct. 19 – is capable of ensuring the security of any vote?
On Wednesday, the agency said it has received 25,000 applications for the 60,000 positions it will require to count up to 45 million complicated ballots by hand within 48 hours, as demanded by the UCP.
The answer is clearly that Elections Alberta is in no position to ensure a fair ballot count and that no matter how the dust settles, the referenda voting and count will be a gong show.
No jurisdiction genuinely committed to democracy would allow such a vote to go ahead in these circumstances.
*Mr. Cooper, by the way, continues to be listed on the RPA’s website as a supporter of Alberta separation, despite his role for more than a year as an accredited Canadian diplomat.