EDMONTON — The Conservative Party of Canada's third-party advertising group advocating against Alberta independence claims it received no donations in its first week registered with Elections Alberta, as contributions were once again heavily concentrated between the two leading TPAs. Albertans donated over $57,964 to groups advertising on either side of the Alberta independence referendum question between Sept. 4 and 10, according to reports published on the Elections Alberta website on Friday. As has often been the case in recent weeks, most donations were split between the federalist group, "Alberta's Voice," and the pro-independence advertisers, "Let Alberta Decide." .Alberta's Voice, led by political strategist Stephen Carter, led the reporting period after receiving $26,089 in donations during the week. Their success coincides with a decrease in donations given to nationalist groups, which received funds in waves during the early weeks after the referendum question was announced in May. The leading federalist advertiser has received $178,510, second among all groups. Let Alberta Decide, co-led by Keith Wilson and Tanya Clemens, saw their run atop the weekly leaderboard end after receiving $17,270 during the reporting period. They still hold a commanding lead in overall campaign donations, at over $502,258. The group produced a pair of online commercials during the week, both urging Albertans to choose option two and send Ottawa a message with their vote..The headline from the week, however, could be the zero contributions reported by the CPC's TPA and their "Stronger Alberta Within a United Canada" campaign, which registered with Elections Alberta on Sept. 2. Some Albertans have been waiting for the CPC group's report, skeptical about whether its campaign funding would come from party donations or contributions from outside Alberta. MP Dane Lloyd is leading the CPC's referendum campaign. “Conservatives have a proud legacy of fighting for Canada since the very dawn of Confederation and continue to proudly defend our country to this day,” said Lloyd when announcing the campaign. .Thomas Lukaszuk and "Forever Canadian" also filed another weekly report with zero donations, as they have throughout the campaign. Some Albertans have expressed concerns about this, given their numerous lawn signs and cross-province tour. Lukaszuk has excused the lack of financial transparency and said his group is campaigning on "Canadian unity," not a referendum question. Alberta's Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act treats referendum groups differently than other political advertising, requiring groups that incur more than $1,000 in advertising expenses to report contributions given toward advertising; simply campaigning about a topic does not necessarily fall under this category. Despite a federalist group winning the individual weekly leaderboard, their side lost the combined totals, gathering $28,274 compared to the $29,690 raised by nationalist TPAs. With roughly five weeks remaining before the Oct. 19 referendum, Albertans have now donated over $1.2 million to TPAs since Premier Danielle Smith announced the question, with $925,265 going to pro-independence groups and $317,076 going to federalists.
