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The B.C. Green party has been quietly amassing what will be its biggest financial war chest ever for the May 9 provincial election, despite having banned corporate and union donations last September.

“Since we did that, our donations have gone through the roof,” party leader Andrew Weaver said in an interview Tuesday, “so we know that it resonates.”

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In a relative sense, that “roof” is orders-of-magnitude lower than the $12 million that the B.C. Liberal party raised over the same period or the $2.8 million the B.C. NDP raised in 2015.

By contrast, the Greens raised $736,667 in 2016, but that nearly doubled their 2015 donations of $357,504, the party reported in January. And some 59 per cent of the 2016 total rolled in after it barred corporate and union donations, said party campaign director Taylor Hartrick.

Hartrick said it will make a big difference for the Green party’s campaign.

“We’ve already done significantly more than we have historically in terms of polling and focus groups and qualitative research as well,” he said.