With millions in assets, the Advocational International Democratic Party of B.C., has a lot of money at its disposal as it contests its first provincial election, but party officials are keeping quiet about their plans.
The party, which wants to see political representatives selected through a lottery as well as through elections, has two candidates on the ballot for the May 14 vote. Beverly Bird, a former director of treaty negotiations for the Tl'azt'en Nation, is running in Nechako Lakes, while Johanna Zalsik is contesting the election in Shuswap.
The party, which has been around for seven years, needed to run at least two candidates in this campaign in order to remain registered with Elections BC.
According to the party's 2012 financial filings with Elections BC, the Advocational Party has $2.8 million in assets and turned an annual operating profit of $275,000 last year, thanks to investment income.
Neither Bird nor Zalsik responded to interview requests from the Citizen to discuss the party's platform or its plans for the final two weeks of the campaign.
According to the Canada Revenue Agency, political parties aren't required to pay tax on their income, so long as they're not considered a for-profit business.
"A political party may be a non-profit organization for tax purposes, in which case its income is not subject to tax," Canada Revenue Agency spokesman Dave Morgan wrote in an email to the Citizen. "However, a political party does not qualify as a non-profit organization for tax purposes if one of its purposes is to earn income, including income from assets. If a political party has a significant amount of income from assets, it may not be a non-profit organization."
Normal fundraising activity, including raising money from donations, doesn't impact a party's non-profit status. Morgan said he couldn't comment on specific cases, but added that there are a number of factors that could compromise a party's non-profit designation, including the amount of money raised from investment income and the purpose the money was used for.
The Advocational Party received a large amount of its money through contributions from the Patriot Party. Over the last seven years the two parties have swapped money back and forth, however the Patriot Party hasn't run candidates for two straight elections and will be de-registered when the writs return in June.
