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Keith Gerein: Corporate donors, third-party advertisers in Edmonton's civic election show need for tougher rules

Indeed, last year’s election already had too much involvement from big money and dark money, largely due to the UCP government’s changes to election rules that almost nobody wanted.

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For those who missed my last column, it was a discussion of how success in last fall’s Edmonton civic election was not particularly linked to the size of a candidate’s war chest.

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The impressive financial enterprise that was the Tim Cartmell and Better Edmonton campaign was defeated by a mayoral rival with less than 20 per cent of the funding. Similarly, in the races for councillors, eight of the 12 wards were won by those who were outspent by at least one opponent.

On the surface, such results might lead us to the adage that money can’t buy happiness, or something like that. And I suppose there is a certain gratification many will take from the outcome, but a single election should not dissuade us from the reality that there remains some real transparency and balance issues with campaign finance rules.

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