UCP Leader Jason Kenney’s hugely successful fundraising from car dealerships led to a massive political blowup Tuesday.

The NDP sent a blistering four-page complaint to Lorne Gibson, Alberta’s election commissioner.

Distroscale

The NDP asked for “substantive penalties” for activities that are “self-described as a deliberate strategy to the avoid the limitations of the election financing law. The violations are “severe and willful,” said the complaint.

Twenty-six Alberta car and truck car dealerships have donated a total of $170,000 to the UCP leader’s cause in the past three months.

The Motor Dealers Association of Alberta (MDA) also pledged $100,000 that hasn’t been donated yet, and said it hopes to raise $1 million in all for Kenney’s cause.

The money is funnelled through Shaping Alberta’s Future , a newly registered third-party advertiser with the sole declared purpose of crushing the NDP and electing Kenney.

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The NDP alleges that Shaping Alberta is going far beyond the intent of the province’s financing law and acting like a full-fledged political party, not merely an advertiser.

For one thing, it solicits money for a purpose that it says don’t require public disclosure.

The group has been increasingly active in recent days, with attack ads against the NDP on radio, TV, billboards, Facebook and other social media.

Shaping Alberta is getting rich fast. In three months since it was registered, it has raised a total of $375,000, including the auto industry funding.

These groups can collect as much as they like. Registered union and progressive advertisers work just as hard for left-wing money, but with far less success, judging by disclosures to Elections Alberta.

Starting Dec. 1 the advertisers can only spend $150,000 until the election writ is dropped next spring. During the 28-day campaign, they can burn off another $150,000.

But until Dec. 1, there’s no limit. Shaping Alberta’s Future appears to be sluicing out the dollars before the cap is imposed, hoping to set the election tone early.

David Wasyluk, the executive director of Shaping Alberta, says he’s delighted with the cash gusher being donated to beat the NDP.

Behind all this lies Kenney’s private dealings with the motor dealers. Details have come out in newsletters and letters sent to dealerships.

In April, after speaking to Kenney on the phone, MDA president Denis Ducharme sent out a newsletter criticizing NDP laws that increase fees for the industry, as well as government control.

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He wrote: “It is Mr. Kenney’s plan to receive these concerns prior to May 15, 2018. His UCP team will review and prepare changes prior to the next provincial election.

“Once elected as the new Alberta Government, they can implement change immediately rather than having consultations which would delay change by up to two years.”

Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley

In an interview Tuesday, Ducharme insisted there was no agreement or deal with Kenney. “Nothing was promised, nothing was bought,” said Ducharme.

Kenney’s UCP spokesperson, Christine Myatt, says the opposition leader listens to policy ideas but doesn’t make promises.

“Soliciting policy proposals from stakeholders does not equal a promise to act and Mr. Kenney has made no such promise to the MDA,” she says.

Ducharme said NDP policy has been very harmful to dealers, so the MDA felt compelled to get involved for the first time since its formation in the 1950s.

He said the body merely wants to help counter the negative advertising aimed at the United Conservative Party.

Kenney met personally with the MDA board Sept. 6. Afterward, MDA chair Andrew Robinson sent a detailed letter to dealers. He said that in regard to recent revisions to the Labour code, Occupation Health and Safety, and Worker’s Compensation, “all the recent changes to these three areas will be cancelled.”

Again, UCP spokesperson Myatt says that was never promised.

“The UCP and its legacy parties (PCs and Wildrose) did in fact support elements of the NDP bills on these matters, including common sense updates to the Employment Standards Code,” she says.

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What is clear is that Kenney made a spirited pitch for money.

After Kenney left the Sept. 6 meeting, the MDA board voted the $100,000 contribution, and urged every dealership to contribute $5,000 each.

Overall, the MDA set a goal of $1 million for Kenney.

Cheques were to be sent to the MDA Edmonton office, payable to Shaping Alberta’s Future.

Elections Alberta published the first disclosure of the actual contributions to Shaping Alberta Monday. It’s kind of breathtaking.

Calgary’s GM dealership group — CMP Automotive Limited — contributed $30,000. Ten dealerships from Taber to Calgary came up with $10,000 each. Car and truck sellers all over the province coughed up $5,000.

This is old-time Alberta money politics. Ducharme, the MDA president, was a three-term Progressive Conservative MLA in the Ralph Klein era.

What’s happening is an inevitable reaction to NDP reform of election laws.

Corporate and union contributions to political parties are now banned. Individuals can only donate $4,000 a year, and parties are limited to spending $2 million each during a campaign.

Corporate cash now has no place to go — except a friendly third-party advertiser.

Fifteen are registered now, from left, right and centre. We’ll see more before the election.

They could have a bigger impact than anybody imagined.

And it may not stop on voting day. The third-party groups that raise cash successfully, and find wealthy patrons, could soon be as potent as U.S.-style Political Action Committees.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

Twitter: @DonBraid