Alberta NDP tops 2017 fundraising but UCP close with only 5 months for donations

The Alberta NDP topped political fundraising in 2017, but the fledgling United Conservative Party was a close second, with only five months of fundraising under its belt.

According to figures released Thursday by Elections Alberta, the NDP raised $2.1million in the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017.

The UCP was slightlybehind with $2.07 million in donations.

The party was formed in late July when members of the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties agreed to merge into a single entity.

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The Wildrose took in $1.2million in 2017. The total for the PCs was $1.8million but about $961,000 was due to transfers, mostly frompartyconstituency associations.

Under Alberta legislation, money from the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties could not be transferred to the merged United Conservative Party when it was formed last year.

Fundraising for the Alberta Party and Alberta Liberals paled in comparison with the governing and official opposition parties.

The Liberals raised $237,758 in 2017. The Alberta Party took in $215,154, afterending2017 without a permanent leader following Greg Clark's resignation in November. Stephen Mandel was chosen as the new leader in February.

Elections Alberta also posted the 2017 financial reports for third-party advertisers, more commonly known as political action committees.

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The Alberta Advantage Fund, which is linked to UCP Leader Jason Kenney, raised $1.1 million in 2017. The Alberta Federation of Labour received $542,389 in donations.

Alberta Can't Wait, Balanced Albertaand the anti-abortion Wilberforce Project either did not have filings available on the Elections Alberta website.