Leadnow Under Attack
Leadnow is under attack. Earlier this week, a complaint was filed with Elections Canada by a group of Conservatives accusing us of using foreign money to pay for your 2015 Vote Together election campaign - the campaign that helped defeat the Harper Conservatives.
We want to be clear: the allegations are false. No foreign money was used in our 2015 election campaign. But the media picked up the story, and it’s making the rounds from the National Post to the Calgary Herald and the CBC.
Our community doesn’t need to break the rules to get things done. This is is part of a larger conservative witch hunt to strangle our people-powered movement. Even though we have a small staff team and limited funds compared to the political parties, we’re effective at making our voices heard. And quite frankly, they hate that.
We would rather spend our time running effective, important campaigns, instead of responding to these unfair and untrue allegations. But we're speaking up now because our reputation and integrity are being questioned. We are working with a lawyer to help us speed up the Elections Canada investigation, so that we can clear our name and get back to winning campaigns.
The real story behind our funding model is simple: Leadnow is 75% funded by individual donors. People like you, who chip in when you can, to help make a difference on issues you care about. The average donation to Leadnow is $19, and we have over 2600 monthly donors who help keep the lights on. The rest of our funding comes from carefully vetted like-minded organizations and donors, for specific campaigns that are aligned with our community’s top-ranked priorities. Less than 18% currently comes from international donors, for international collaboration on some of the biggest challenges of our times, including on climate. No international money goes towards any of our election campaigns.
We haven’t seen the full text of the report so we can’t comment on what’s in it, but here’s the bottom line: we took every precaution to ensure we obeyed the law throughout the campaign (in addition to running hard-hitting and effective campaigns, we are also fantastic record-keepers). We have filed and submitted a report and audit with Elections Canada, and we are confident Elections Canada has a comprehensive understanding of the campaign.
We know that won’t be good enough for our enemies, and this may continue to make the rounds in the media. It's an attempt to distract us from what really matters and undermine our work together. This isn’t the first time we’ve been attacked and it won’t be the last. The right will continue to try to stop us because we’re big, we’re people-powered, and we’re effective.
We have already seen an outpouring of support from the Leadnow community this week. If you believe in what we do, we could use your help too. Can you chip in $5, $10, or $15 today? The best way to respond is to strengthen our people-powered movement, so we can continue to campaign on the issues that matter.
We look forward to getting back to our real priorities: electoral reform, stopping climate-killing pipelines, and fighting for social justice at every turn.