Friday, February 3, 2023

Elections BC Data charts the fundraising and expenses of the 2022 Municipal Election campaigns in Prince Rupert, Port Edward

Mayor elect Herb Pond following his
election to office in October 2022
(image from Mr. Pond's FB election FB stream)


Herb Pond raised the most money, spent the largest sum of it  and for his efforts, collected the most votes as part of his successful quest for the Prince Rupert Mayoralty last fall.

The 2022 Election Contribution files have been released by Elections BC and the Prince Rupert race for the top elected office in the municipality was a contrast of extremes. 

At the top end was Herb Pond's campaign which featured  $12,399.51 in contributions, and a similar amount in expenses. 

While  the bare bones campaign of Stephen Fitzpatrick raised no funds, spent no money and on Election Day, collected only a smattering of votes on October 15th.

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The Two other candidates for the Mayoralty in 2022, Jason Hoang and Chrystopher Thompson were well back of Mr, Pond's significant numbers for cash collection and spending.   

Mr.  Hoang recorded contributions $3,000.00 of and expenses of $2,978.65, while Mr. Thompson had contributions reported $3,880.70 with his expenses totalling $3,577.61.

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Candidates had an expense limit of $14,231.16

The full list of financial contributors for the Mayoralty candidates can be reviewed here

For those that like to dive deep into data, you can also compare the 2022 Mayor's race to that of 2014, the last time that Prince Rupert voters had a mayoralty race with a range of options to choose from.

The 2018 Mayor's campaign found no challengers for the then incumbent Lee Brain who was returned to office by acclamation.

Towards that deeper dive, click on the Date on the left hand side of the data display column to bring the more current year to the front of your review list.  The 2014 accounts will follow.

As for the City Council. race, the volume of money in support for the would be Councillors was somewhat less and the majority of the campaigns were seemingly self financed for the most part. 

The Elections BC Statements were as follows:

Nick Adey
Contributions: $1,052.85
Expenses: $982.94

Andy Chugh
Contributions: $1,407.00
Expenses: $1,406.36

Barry Cunningham
Contributions: $1,950.00
Expenses: $2,366.63

Teri Forster
Contributions: $1,549.00
Expenses: $1,547.96

Sheila Gordon-Payne
Contributions: $1,700.00
Expenses: $3,175.00

Wade Niesh
Contributions: $0.00
Expenses: $450.00

Gurvinder Randhawa
Contributions: $1,231.77
Expenses: $2,322.06

Reid Skelton-Morven
Contributions: $1,581.63
Expenses: $1,581.63

Candidates had an expense limit of $7,115.58

The Council data base towards Council candidate financial contributions is significantly shorter and is available here

For those looking to compare how the 2022 Council campaign matched up with the past few electoral events, as it was for the Mayoral data notes, click on the Date on the left hand side of the column from the data display to bring the more current year to the front of your review list.


The volume of fundraising and spending in Port Edward was nowhere at the volume of Prince Rupert, leading up to Knut Bjorndal's success at the ballot box. 

Mr. Bjorndal had total contributions from the campaign of $1,000 with expenses of $1,890.08



His main competitor Shawn Pettit, had contributions of $400.00 with expenses of  $340.34

Carl Schmidt had no contributions and no expenses for his 2022 campaign.

The list of financial contributors to the mayoral race is available here.

The list of financial contributors is rather sparse for the District's 2022 Council campaign what Elections BC has to share  can be reviewed here.

Across the Northwest the Prince Rupert Mayor's race was by far the one that collected and made use of the most money. 

With both the Terrace and Kitimat Mayoralty elections settled by acclamation in 2022, only Smithers had the other competition for the top elected post of the four largest communities.

And compared to the spending in the Prince Rupert race, Smithers was a parsimonious affair.  

The Combined Smithers mayoralty fundraising totalling just over 4,500 dollars for both Gladys Attril and Murray Hawse

Ms. Attril spent $4,627.42 while Mr. Hawse had expenses of $2,051.30

You can revisit the themes of the 2022 Election campaigns from our archive pages.



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