$411,703 in Campaign Finance From Tides Canada-Affiliated Individuals, "Investment Firms" & P.R. Companies

"The election of Mayor Robertson is the result of creating conditions where these things could take hold. Nearly 20 years of moving in a purposeful direction."

- Joel Solomon, The Huffington Post

By any measure, $400,000 in campaign finance over 5 years is a lot. If a single politician or political party had received this much from a real estate developer or corporation, it wouldn't go unnoticed.

As it turns out, according to my calculations, during the course of five years of politics with both the NDP and Vision Vancouver, Gregor Robertson has received more than $400,000 in campaign finance from sources that are affiliated in various ways with two registered charities: The Endswell Foundation ("Endswell") and Tides Canada. The exact amount, according to my analysis and calculations, is $411,703.

The $411,703 consists of $72,438 that went towards Mayor Robertson's NDP career, and at least $339,265 towards funding his mayoral campaign with Vision Vancouver, and Vision Vancouver itself. The $339,265 figure is roughly consistent with the figure of $330,000 that was estimated by Lori Culbert in The Vancouver Sun, August 18, 2010.

In various posts at this blog, I have tried to present my concerns and questions about the campaign finance from Tides-affiliated sources that Gregor Robertson has received on his path to power. This post attempts to compile that information.

Gregor Robertson is no stranger to Tides Canada. In fact, he was a Tides Canada director from 2002 until 2004 when he entered B.C. politics with the NDP. Martha Burton, the treasurer of Vision Vancouver, is a long-term senior advisor to Tides Canada. Burton is also the vice-president of Renewal Partners. Mike Magee, the Chief of Staff at Vancouver City Hall, was also a senior advisor to Tides Canada (2002 to 2007).

Endswell and Tides Canada are legally distinct but for practical purposes, Endswell appears to me to be part and parcel of Tides Canada. Here's why:

For most of the 2000's, the two charities had the same chair, president/vice-chair and treasurer. In both charities, these positions were held by Drummond Pike, Joel Solomon and James Morrisey, an Ernst & Young accountant. Pike and Solomon are central figures in a network of charities affiliated with Tides USA and Tides Canada. Pike is was the CEO of Tides USA for 34 years until he quietly stepped down in 2010.

Between 2003 and 2009, fully 99 percent of the funds granted by Endswell went to Tides Canada, a total of $8.7 million. Between 2003 and 2009, Endswell hardly made a single grant to any organization except Tides Canada. So, in essence, as it appears to me, when Endswell made grants to Tides Canada, money was simply being transferred from one charity that the directors control, to another.

According to my analysis of Tides Canada's donors, its the largest so-called "Canadian" donor to Tides Canada has been Endswell. Of the $27 million that I have traced that has been donated to Endswell by various Canadian foundations, $10 million came from Endswell.

Innterestingly enough, Endswell's doors are now closed. "Endswell’s grant-making era is now complete," the foundation says at its web-site. Total expenditures in 2010 were only $12,710 and didn't include any salaries. But at Tides Canada, the number of employees has sky-rocketed. In 2010, Tides Canada reported 251 employees, up from 37 in 2006.

About the video above: Cutting the ribbon with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson are Carol Newell and Pamela Chalout, on the mayor's right, and Martha Burton and Joel Solomon, on the mayor's far left. Ms. Burton is the treasurer of Vision Vancouver. At the time that Ms. Burton and Mr. Joel Solomon were on staff at Renewal Partners, the "investment firm" that has been the biggest funder of Vision Vancouver, their salaries were paid by the Endswell Foundation, a registered charity. Source: Ribbon Cutting at the Tides Renewal Centre from Christopher Roy on Vimeo.

SOURCES:

The information and analysis presented here with regards to Vision Vancouver's campaign finance is based on these disclosure statements:

$248,642 from "Investment Firms" & P.R. Companies

Below, here are the excerpts from the campaign finance disclosure statements of Vision Vancouver in which a total of $248,642 is reported from Renewal Partners, Interdependent Investments LTd., Strategic Communications, Convergence Communications & Communicopia.

VV $248,642

Contributions from Individuals

Here's a table that lists the contributions from individuals, for a total of $113,937. That included $23,296 towards Gregor Robertson's NDP campaign and the NDP, and $90,641 towards his mayoral campaign and Vision Vancouver.

N.D.P. Campaign Finance

From the disclosure statements that Gregor Robertson and his team filed in 2005, and re-filed in 2007, it seems to me that a large part of the funding that Strategic Communications contributed to the NDP may have gone specifically to Gregor Robertson's MLA campaign in the Vancouver Fairview riding.

Gregor Robertson's NDP campaign finance disclosure statements report a total of $138,528. Of that, according to my analysis, at least $72,438 was from sources who are affiliated in various ways with Tides Canada and/or Tides USA. Including $10,000 from Gregor Robertson and his wife, Amy, that accounts for 40 percent of Robertson's NDP campaign finance.

The reason that I have included both Gregor Robertson and his wife as affiliated with Tides/Tides Canada is because from 2000 to 2005, Amy Robertson was the president of the Linnaea Farm Society on Cortes Island which has been funded by both Tides Canada every year since 2003, that's as far back as on-line records go, and also by Tides U.S.A. According to Gregor Robertson's profile that was posted at the web-site of Tides Canada, he worked with the Linnaea Farm Society from 2002 to 2004. Tides Canada also reports that Robertson worked with the Wild Salmon Fund which is heavily funded by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.

The $72,438, includes:

$28,530 from Strategic Communications.

$20,642 from Convergence Communications. U.S. tax returns indicate that Tides Canada paid $204,036 to Convergence Communications in 2003 and 2005. (The information about how much Tides Canada paid to its highest five-paid contractors is not included in the publicly available tax return for 2004). The B.C. company summary for Convergence Communications indicates that its sole officer is Michael Magee, your Chief of Staff. He was a senior advisor of Tides Canada from 2002 to 2007.

$6,000 from Carol Newell. When Ms. Newell was awarded the Order of Canada for having "placed" $60 million, Tides Canada reported that she is the "founder" of Tides Canada. U.S. tax returns show that since 2004, Ms. Newell has contributed $1.1 million to the Endswell Foundation - a far cry from $60 million. The 2009 tax return for the Endswell Foundation reports that a person by the name of Carol Newell was paid $49,921 as "secretary." That same year, Carol Newell contributed $73,206, U.S. tax returns say.

$6,328 from Andrew Beath. Mr. Beath is said to be the "founder" of the Earthways Foundation which has received a small amount of funding from Tides U.S.A.

$680 from Renewal Partners

$259 from Mark Deutschmann, the CEO of Village Real Estate of Nashville Tennessee, a company in which Renewal Partners has "invested." U.S. tax returns say that Joel Solomon has 10 percent ownership in Village Real Estate.

NOTE: In addition to the above, there are three contributions for a total of $10,500 (or $11,500, its hard to read the hand-writing) which were made from the Vancouver Fairview Constituency Association. Where those funds originated and whether they went towards the NDP in general, or specifically towards Gregor Robertson's campaign, is not clear. For the purposes of the analyses presented here, these funds have not been included.