In the midst of last year’s parallel campaigns to stop the Waverley West housing development and to save the Bois-des-esprits forest an ardent NDP supporter e-mailed me with a justifiable complaint. He noted that I have never commented on the financial support that the Borger family, noted Winnipeg developers, gives to Liberal Members of Parliament in Manitoba. He was right, I was remiss. While the Borger family is of no apparent interest to local media they are always of great interest to readers of my web site. Now that the Bois-des-esprits has been saved and the battle to stop Waverley West is finally over (sadly, the developers won) I have a bit more free time. I recently searched the Elections Canada database and found out that there was indeed a lot of Borger family support for the federal Liberals in 2004. I counted 20 individuals with the surname Borger giving 22 separate contributions to federal Liberal candidates in Manitoba during that election year. (Because of the use of initials and the Borger family’s fondness for using Junior in naming their male heirs the actual number of contributors is probably 18 or 19). Their total dollar support for the Liberals in 2004 was an impressive $10,000. (To be fair, individuals surnamed Borger also gave 24 contributions totaling an even larger $11,000 to the federal Conservative Party.) The Liberals had three candidates that seem to stand out on the spreadsheet that I made. Each of these three candidates is, in some way, of particular importance to the long-term goals of the Borger family.
The Borger family owns several private companies, the best known being the major Winnipeg housing subdivision developer, Ladco. Ladco housing developments are currently underway in both St. Boniface and Fort Garry in South Winnipeg. Reg Alcock, the powerful MP representing the Ladco developments of Waverley West and Richmond West in Fort Garry, received 6 contributions totaling $3,000 from individuals surnamed Borger in 2004. Bested only by the media giant Asper family’s generous $4,500 contribution, the Borger contribution matches the transport based Kleysen family’s contribution of $3,000. University of Manitoba SmartPark head and Winnipeg Free Press co-owner Robert Silver donated $1,000 to the Treasury Board chairman’s re-election fund as well. These four powerful families donated $11,500 of the $40,580 total, over one quarter of the amount of cash that Mr. Alcock successfully raised in 2004.
Unsuccessful federal candidate Glen Murray, (Winnipeg’s runaway Mayor and the original proponent of Waverley West, according to the Manitoba NDP) received 4 contributions totaling $2,000 from individuals surnamed Borger. Raymond Simard, the MP representing Ladco’s Royalwood development, received 3 contributions totaling $1,500. The three Liberal candidates of Alcock, Murray and Simard received an aggregated $6,500, about two thirds of the Liberal total and almost one third of the $21,000 given to all federal Conservative and Liberal candidates by individuals surnamed Borger in 2004.
The federal NDP didn’t receive any Borger surname contributions in 2004. Compare this to significant Borger financial support for the Provincial NDP during non-election years http://www.oocities.org/waverleywest/BorgerPoliticalContributions2001to2003.html
As Alan Borger Jr. pointed out to the Winnipeg Free Press, his large, extended family and other prominent families have the right to support the democratic process through the use of donations such as these.
http://www.oocities.org/waverleywest/WFPOctober202003.html
I am certainly not intimating that anything of value was ever received, or even contemplated, for these generous political contributions, but feel free to make of these findings what you will.