The followup:

Two veteran Liberals pointed to political financing reforms that severely curtailed how much corporations could donate as a reason for their party's fundraising woes - but butted heads on who's to blame.

"What it says is that the Liberal Party of Canada had become too dependent on corporate money for too many years and I think that was one of the concerns that [former Prime Minister Jean] Chrétien had," Warren Kinsella, a former staffer for Chrétien, told Macleans.ca.

The Conservatives and New Democrats have "been able to adjust to the new reality," Kinsella said. "It's a lot of blue-haired old ladies and folks sending in their $100, their $500. Going back to their Reform roots, [the Conservatives] always had a ... cultural tradition of fundraising. And the NDP, through its prairie, agrarian roots has also had that tradition.

"The one party that did not - and as I say, had been way too dependent on corporate money - was the Liberal party, and now it's paying the price quite literally."

While Kinsella declared himself "100 per cent" supportive of the new fundraising rules, forner Liberal party president Stephen LeDrew is clearly less enthused - repeating his now-famous criticism from when Chretien introduced the reforms.

"What I think about it is that it was dumb as a bag of hammers," the Toronto lawyer and broadcaster told Macleans.ca on Wednesday. "I think it was motivated by [Chrétien] trying to clean his reputation and in the process he severely damaged the party."

LeDrew acknowledged the Liberals are "retooling" their party to cope with new rules - adding that before they were introduced, grassroots fundraising "had not been the culture of the party and it takes a while to change a culture."

"The stephen LeDrew types will say what they're always going to say," Kinsella offered. "But my answer will be it's still the right thing to do."

The story:

The Conservative party raised almost 10 times more money - from 10 times more donors - as the Liberals in the first three months of 2007.

Even the NDP, traditionally the least funded of the three main parties, raised twice as much as the Stéphane Dion's party.

The Liberals managed to raise only $531,141 from 4,365 donors, quarterly fundraising results posted Tuesday by Elections Canada show. The Conservatives raised almost $5.2-million from over 45,000 contributors, while the NDP attracted $1.2-million from nearly 15,000 donors.

Before political financing reforms in 2004, the Grits relied most heavily on big corporate donations. Since then, they have struggled to adjust to the ban on corporate contributions.

But the Conservatives - who have strong grassroots support - made an easy transition. The Tories raised almost $19-million in 2006, while the Liberals raised $11-million.

The Bloc Québecois, which gets money strictly from public subsidies paid to parties, raised slightly under $35,000.

The Green party, which has no representation in the House of Commons, raised almost $155,000.

With files from The Canadian Press

Background:

In 1974, amid growing concern over political fundraising, the Canadian government introduced the Election Expenses Act - what would be the government's first attempt to regulate party finances.

The Election Expenses Act - which was built on the idea that election finances should be open to public scrutiny - introduced election spending controls and required disclosure of how money was spent. It also introduced partial funding of campaigns with public money, with the goal of making the process fairer.

It was in 2002 that former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien introduced an ethics package requiring all ministers to disclose any political donations within 30 days of a donation, unless the funds are placed in a blind trust - in which case they must disclose the funds no later than 30 days before a leadership convention.

Chrétien went further still with Bill C-24. Prior to 2004, when the bill was came into effect, political contributions could be made by individuals or organizations - such as corporations and unions - Canadian or not. Bill C-24 stated, with some minor exceptions, that only Canadians and permanent residents could donate, and enforced a limit on how much could be given.

Moreover, corporations and unions could give a maximum of only $1,000 annually, with adjustments for inflation. Some corporations - such as those that don't do business in Canada - are barred from donating altogether.

Canadians could legally give $5,000 annually, also with adjustments for inflation. Any person or corporation who gave more than $200 would have their name and address published. This applied to contributions that were not only financial, but also goods and services.

The bill also assigned more public money for the political process, giving a direct subsidy to parties that is tied directly to votes - parties winning more than 2 per cent of the vote nationally, or 5 per cent in a riding, earn $1.75(adjusted for inflation)per vote. From 2004 on, elections would be financed almost 90 per cent by the public.

Bill C-24 also placed spending restrictions on federal party leadership races.

In Dec. 2006 under the Conservative government, the Federal Accountability Act passed, introducing further changes to election financing. Among other things, new, lower limits for political contributions were introduced. Furthermore, only Canadian citizens or permanent residents can make a contribution - corporations, trade unions, and associations are barred from contributing.

Today, Canadian citizens or permanent residents can donate no more than $1,100 per party, per year.

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