B.C. Liberals more than double membership

New memberships to the B.C. Liberal party — even excluding a cat and unsuspecting teenaged hockey players — have swelled the governing party's ranks to numbers approaching the heyday of 2001, when the New Democrats were bounced from office.

The Liberals announced Tuesday that leadership candidates have raked in 50,000 new signups and the party's membership now stands at 90,000 people.

"It's a clear signal of the enthusiasm that has been ignited by this leadership race," said Mickey Patryluk, the party's president.

"Being part of this process reminds everyone involved in our party that every vote matters."

'If you sign someone up you are not necessarily acquiring their political soul.' —Political scientist Norman Ruff

Membership topped 100,000 before the 2001 election that saw the governing NDP reduced to two seats versus 77 for the Liberals.

But since then, it had dwindled down to 35,000 members when Premier Gordon Campbell stepped down in November, prompting the current leadership race.

The party announcement Tuesday comes as controversy continues to bubble over about how some of those memberships have been  gathered.

Ineligible members mar race

Last week, a cat made it on to the Liberal membership list. On Tuesday, teenage Kamloops Blazers players were revealed to have unwittingly been recruited into the party by a supporter of Kevin Falcon's campaign.

"We learned that one of our supporters had signed up several members of the Kamloops Blazers hockey team as members of the B.C. Liberal Party without their knowledge," said a statement Tuesday from Falcon's campaign manager Norman Stowe.

Stowe said Falcon appreciates the support, but his campaign's first obligation is to work with the party and other leadership campaigns to ensure membership lists are as clean as possible.

Craig Bonner, vice-president and general manager of the hockey club, took the blame for the controversy and said he took the full responsibility for the "communication error."

Meanwhile, Falcon's camp is also raising concerns that leadership contender Christy Clark's campaign team may have been using photocopied membership forms to sign up new members.

Clark said she's unaware if that happened.

"I don't know that there's any basis for that complaint whatsoever. The party's going to deal with it and I'm sure they'll deal with it well," she said.

In an effort to deal with the controversy, the party hired a marketing company to call new members at random to verify their details.

No official numbers

Details of which camp the new memberships are coming from was not provided by the party Tuesday.

But over the past weeks, various leadership campaigns have released their own numbers.

Falcon's camp claimed 17,500 members, de Jong has said he's signed up 10,000, and a source in Clark's camp has said she's signed up between 20,000 and 25,000 people.

At 47,000 signups, that number would account for almost all the new memberships the party is reporting, unless the candidates are exaggerating their numbers.

George Abbott, who has also been considered among the top candidates, said Tuesday he won't reveal his side's numbers.

Abbott has been highly critical of the irregularity involving the cat, but was forced last weekend to admit someone associated with his campaign was responsible for a website lampooning the matter.

He said Tuesday he won't play "the numbers game" and said the sign-up numbers from the other camps are "unreliable."

"We have taken a position in our camp that we need to invest heavily as a party to ensure we get as much integrity and legitimacy behind all the signups as we possibly can," he said.

There are two other Liberal leadership candidates: Dr. Moira Stilwell and former Parksville mayor Ed Mayne.

Support unreliable

Just which leadership candidate will benefit the most from the high memberships won't be known until voting day. 

"The parties use these occasions not just to bring in a little extra money, but to try to rejuvenate the party," said Norman Ruff, a retired University of Victoria political scientist.

While Clark and Falcon might revel in their lead in the membership signup race and use their recruits as an indication of their popularity, Ruff said all bets are off when the leadership vote happens Feb. 26.  New members are always free to change their loyalties, he said. 

"If you sign someone up you are not necessarily acquiring their political soul," Ruff said.

As the Liberal campaign heads into the last weeks and the dirty tricks and accusations fly, Liberal leadership contender de Jong said everyone needs to remember that at some point, they'll all have to work together.

"People have to take a breath, like a really deep breath," he said. "Because if we are going to dance around the camp fire on Feb. 27 and sing Kumbaya, they better start humming a few bars right now."