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The following week, there were more deposits – 856 in all. Most were under $100, which added up to roughly $60,000. The exception was a $5,000 donation from A&W Canada CEO Paul F.B. Hollands.

It’s not clear whether these reported donations were made before or after the election. Party spokesman Emile Scheffel said contributions are only recorded by deposit date.

He noted in an email, “All contributions we receive of more than $250 are reported to Elections B.C. as part of our Annual Financial Report and, if applicable, our Election Financing Report, which covers contributions deposited during the writ period up to and including May 9.”

Aside from that reporting requirement, there is no rule about how much can be raised either during a campaign or between campaigns.

While the Liberals voluntarily disclose their donations online, the other parties don’t. So, we’ll have to wait to see how they fared in the money sweepstakes.

Still, what we do know is that as soon as the NDP forms government, it will likely put at least as much energy into ending 16 years of the Liberals’ pay-for-play system and reforming the election spending laws as it does raising money.

Exactly how they’ll do that hasn’t been determined. But it will be one of the first issues that the Green-backed New Democrats will tackle.

Meantime, it bears pointing out that for a political party to deposit a million bucks a few days after an election is impressive at anytime and especially following a defeat. But in the coming weeks, there may be fertile ground for the Liberals to raise even more among the “free-enterprisers” who are deeply suspicious of “socialist” New Democrats, let alone tree-hugging Greens.