Cash-strapped PCs 'working hard' on building campaign war chest

Money was so tight at New Brunswick Progressive Conservative headquarters last year the party successfully applied for $4,700 in government wage assistance to help hire staff and had so many overdue bills it spent almost as much on late charges as it did on heat and lights.

Bob Hatheway acknowledges 2017 was a financial challenge for the PCs, but the party's long-time official agent and Fredericton businessman is confident it will be able to raise the substantial sums it needs this year to fight an effective province-wide election campaign even with tough new donation rules.

"The party fundraising team has been working hard on that," said Hatheway.

"I have every expectation that as the election writ drops we'll be fully funded for our budget we need for fighting the election."

Huge Liberal advantage

Raising money is traditionally difficult for opposition parties in New Brunswick, but the financial gap at the end of 2017 between governing Liberals, who had $1.8 million in the bank, and Opposition Tories, who had $13,000 and change in their accounts, looks especially daunting heading into this year's election season.

Progressive Conservatives raised $1.5 million to help fight the last election in 2014, but 54 per cent of that came from corporate donations which are now banned in the province. Maximum donations from individuals have also been lowered from $6,000 to $3,000.

That will limit how much money can be raised this year and could lead to a no-frills campaign for the party as it tries to live on what it can coax from individuals or qualify for in reimbursements from Elections New Brunswick to finance everything it does.

"I don't know that we'll be able to reach that past level. I do know we are being very conscientious of what our budget is," said Hatheway.

"The amount of money that any of the other parties have is not really too relevant to us because we have a budget that's in place for our own purposes and we're going to be able to raise the money that's needed for that."

Hatheway wouldn't say what that budget is, but the party has spent more than $3 million in each of the last two election years, most of that on the campaign.

In each of those campaigns, the party ended up borrowing money to supplement fundraising but, at the end of 2017, still owed $256,405 from past loans and is trying to avoid more debt this time.

"Our intention is to spend money we do have," said Hatheway

"The fundraising has been going very well. I'm quite excited about how it's going."