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Part 1 of 2. On Tuesday we look at top donors to the NDP.

Large corporate donors to the B.C. Liberals have given big in the past decade, with the top 50 handing out more than $30 million since 2005.

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That’s more than one quarter of the $118.7 million raised between 2005 and the first few weeks of 2017, and highlights the concentration and potential influence of the top donors on the B.C. Liberals, an examination by Postmedia shows.

The analysis shows a similar situation for union donations to the NDP, where unions in the top 50 contributors to the party accounted for 30 per cent of the $42 million raised between 2005-2015.

This concentration of big donors, say experts, is an important consideration in a debate over whether corporate and unions donations should be banned and individual donations capped as in other populous provinces — including Ontario, Quebec and Alberta — and also federally, under the premise that money buys influence in politics.