Data: How Third Party Advertiser donations were spent in the Calgary municipal election

More than two million was spent by Third Party Advertisers (TPA) in Calgary’s 2021 municipal election to aid candidates or issues in the lead up to the October vote.

Below is a breakdown of each of the TPA expenses. You may recall in a previous LWC story that donor names were redacted. Calgarians won’t know who this money came from.

Overall, Third Party Advertisers spent at least $2.23 million in advertising and other related expenses throughout the 2021 campaign.

Of these, Calgrians for a Progressive Future spent the most at $1,615,304, and ABC Ward 12 YYC the least with $625.

ABC Ward 12 YYC

ABC Ward 12 YYC spent the least of all of the TPAs in the 2021 municipal election, at a comparatively minuscule $625.

Their expenses were made up of $334.19 in campaign expenses, and a $290.81 donation to the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter.

Alberta Proud

Alberta Proud spent $23,802.50 during the municipal campaign, exclusively on Facebook advertising.

Records provided by the TPA for their municipal advertising indicated that they recieved 1,102,519 impressions from Facebook for for five different ad runs. Internally, they called this category "MUNI tool farkas [sic]."

Documents provided by the TPA disclosure indicated that Alberta Proud spent $1,852.24 on advertising for Erika Barootes for the province's senatorial election. And an additional $19,950 on equalization advertising, and $3,527.50 on oil and gas advertising in Quebec.

The group also spent $123.11 on two categories entitled "CENN Likes" and "CSP transformation letters."

Those spending categories were outside of the indicated spending on the Calgary election.

Calgarians for a Progressive Future (Calgary's Future)

Calgarians for a Progressive Future spent a total of $1,615,303.92 during the municipal campaign. Of that, expenses related to Point Blank Creative made up the vast majority at $1,564,500.

The TPA itemized their advertising spend for print, digital, paid media management, broadcast voice messaging, video production, and vote planning tool advertising at $505,917.13.

Calgary Tomorrow

Calgary Tomorrow did not provide an income and expense statement as part of their disclosure package to Elections Calgary. Instead they provided a balance sheet for February 28, 2022.

This balance sheet indicated that on that date, Calgary Tomorrow had $28,417.43 on hand in cash.

Calgary Tomorrow disclosed that they raised $422,158.72 from contributors. Using this value, it is estimated that the TPA had at least $393,741 in expenses during the campaign period.

However, the Calgary Tomorrow campaign did provide extensive supporting documentation for individual advertising advertising expenses through traditional and social media avenues, campaign phone calls, and website design.

The total for these disclosed expenses were $273,851. None of these included items like office supplies, campaign consulting fees, bank fees, or other types of expenses included by other Third Party Advertisers.

Fluoride Yes

The Fluoride Yes TPA spent a total of $44,376.47 on their election campaign to return fluoride to Calgary's water supply.

Of that, the TPA itemized their expenses as $1,556.52 for Stripe payment processing fees, $102.75 for bank fees, and the remainder of $42,717.20 for campaign expenses.

The TPA provided detailed expenses by vendor, along with categorization and descriptive details.

Vincent St. Pierre, who served on the TPA's campaign for social media, brand, and website support, was the largest component of the TPA expenses.

Lead Calgary

Lead Calgary indicated that they incurred $15,442.50 for election advertising expenses, and $870.38 other expenses for a total of $16,312.88.

The TPA included costs for two vendors for their election advertising campaign.

Look Forward Society for Political Action of Alberta

Look Forward Society for Political Action of Alberta indicated that they spent a total of $108,246 on the election campaign.

The TPA only provided documentation for individual Facebook vendor transactions, for a total of $3,331.67.

These were used for Facebook ads for candidates Jay Unsworth, Evan Spencer, and Jasmine Mian.

The ads targeted the communities of Millrise, Silverado, Bridlewood, Canyon Meadows, Shawnee Slopes, Woodbine, Whanessy, Woodlands, Evergreen, Yorkville, Mahogany, Cranston, Seton, Auburn Bay, Copperfield, New Brighton, McKenzie Towne, South Foothills, East Shepard, Shepard, Hidden Valley, Panorama Hills, Coventry Hills, Sandstone Valley, Harvest Hills, Carrington, MacEwan Glen, Livingston, Country Hills Village, and Country Hills.

Responsible Representation Political Action Committee

The Responsible Representation Political Action Committee indicated that they had expenses of $23,957. This was made of up of two categories: $8,312.02 for operating expenses, and $15,645.87 for marketing, advertising and consulting.

The TPA provided supporting documentation for payments to vendors which totalled $25,214.32 in expenses.

Included in the supporting documentation was reimbursement for Shane Keating for $1,879.76 for the Google and Facebook ads placed onto his credit cards. This was not included in the table below to avoid duplication of costs.