Kelowna Liberals outspend NDP to bag the May election

KELOWNA – It's no secret political parties open their wallets to win votes, and according to the expenses reported by Kelowna's MLAs – it costs to be on top.

According to financial reports released today by ElectionsBC all three of Kelowna's Liberal MLAs had the most expensive campaigns in the May general election.

Kelowna-Mission's Liberal MLA Steve Thomson spent over three times as much as NDP candidate Tish Lakes. At a grand tally of $76,286, Thomson's campaign surpassed Lakes' budget of $24,500. Thomson spent over $20,000 in media advertising, newsletters and promotional material, while the NDP spent just under $9,000 for advertising. And where social functions for Thomson's campaign came to $2,000, Lakes' budget was just $130.

Before Premier Christy Clark entered the picture, Westside incumbent Ben Stewart spent $67,424 on his campaign, winning an albeit short lived re-election as MLA. NDP candidate Carole Gordon ran her campaign on a more modest budget of $38,341.

The disparity in spending was also reported in the Kelowna-Lake Country riding, where Liberal MLA Norm Letnick ran a $72,411 campaign. Though NDP candidate Mike Nuyens wasn't too far behind, spending a total of $51,272.