City of North Vancouver Mayor Linda Buchanan spent more than $101,000 in her successful re-election bid, a new record for a North Shore electoral campaign.
Campaign finance disclosure documents filed with Elections B.C. were made public last week, detailing where candidates raised their money and how they spent it.
Buchanan pulled in $113,531 in new donations on top of $30,868 she had left over and was still eligible to spend from her 2018 campaign.
Corporate and union donations were banned before the 2018 municipal elections, but Buchanan relied heavily on contributions from individuals who work in the development, consulting, project management and real estate sectors.
An analysis by the North Shore News found there are at least 54 donations of $1,000 or more from directors, staff and executives associated with Polygon Homes, Anthem Properties, Anna Development, Pezzente Holdings, Redekop Development Corp., Qualex Landmark, Adera Development, Onni, Cascadia Green, Arete Ventures, Millennium Group, Beringia Community Planning, Pooni Group, Strand, CRS Group, Domus Homes, Sugar Bowl Holdings, Three Shores Development, the Rennie Group, icona Properties and Staburn Group.
Maximum individual donations are capped by law at $1,250 per year. Some donors from that list appear multiple times with annual donations going back to 2020.
Other notable names include former city mayor Darrell Mussatto and former West Vancouver mayor Mary-Ann Booth. Prior to re-entering politics, BC Liberal Party leader Kevin Falcon donated $1,200 in 2020 when he was executive vice-president of Anthem. North Vancouver-Lonsdale NDP MLA Bowinn Ma chipped in $100. Gary and Taylor Mathieson, CEO and president, respectively, of Quay North Urban Development, which owns Lonsdale Quay, each contributed $1,239, and Tap & Barrel owner Daniel Frankel also gave more than $1,200.
The law limits mayoral candidate spending to $42,499 in the 28-day “campaign period” before the election in the City of North Vancouver, but there is no limit on how much they can spend during the year of the election. Buchanan declared $58,677 in spending in the run up to the official campaign, more than $32,000 of which was on social media ads. The second highest expense was listed as “professional services” at $13,230. During the campaign period, Buchanan spent just over $33,000 with promotional materials, postage and social media ads taking up most of the budget.
There is one significant caveat related to the way spending is tallied under the legislation. Expenses for things that applied to both the campaign period and the year leading up to the election (like lawn signs or websites) must be counted in both columns, meaning some purchases are double counted.
The previous record for most expensive mayoral campaign on the North Shore was held by Mussatto who decared $96,702 following his last win in 2014.
Buchanan’s war chest was left with another $36,629 left over, which must be handed over to the City of North Vancouver. If she runs again, she may claim it and add it to her next campaign budget. If she doesn’t, the money is remitted to the city.
Buchanan won the mayoral race with 56.41 percent of the ballots. Her sole competitor, Guy Heywood, raised $14,080 in donations, mostly from friends and family, and spent $17,384, leaving himself with a campaign debt to be repaid.
In the race for seats on council, four of the six highest spenders were elected. Coun. Holly Back topped the list with $29,259 in declared expenditures but just over $20,000 in campaign contributions. Back said the discrepancy is partly because she re-used signs from her previous campaign. Coun. Tony Valente was close behind with $28,623 in declared expenditures on $19,276 in donations. Again, double counting some expenses was the reason given. Shervin Shahriari, who was elected for the first time, declared $24,033. Coun. Angela Girard’s spending came in at $16,689, while Couns. Don Bell and Jessica McIlroy spent $8,173 and $5,524, respectively.
The total amount spent by the 14 council and mayoral candidates in the election hit $262,435.
