When the B.C. Liberals released an update Friday on what proved to be a banner year in political fundraising, they strove to minimize their continued reliance on big dollar donations from the corporate sector.
"Since Christy Clark became party leader, we've made a focused effort to grow our base of grassroots donors, including individuals and small businesses," the news release quoted party president Sharon White.
"Those efforts are paying off. In 2016, we brought in over 9,000 donations of $100 or less - almost twice as many as in 2011."
There followed details of some minor tinkering to speed up disclosure, coupled with several pages of charts and graphs crafted to underscore the party president's point.
More individual donors. More people giving amounts in the $25 to $100 range.
More corporate contributors giving $1,000 or less.
All by way of making the case that the party was attracting more small fry to its ranks of contributors.
Still there was no overlooking the continued role of the big fish in bankrolling the governing party. The relentless fundraising drives by Premier Christy Clark and her ministers last year raised $12.5 million, one of the best years ever for party coffers.
About $8 million of the total came from corporate donations. More than half of those - $4.5 million - came from 290 corporations that gave an average of $15,000 apiece.
So for all the guff emerging from party headquarters, the B.C. Liberals are still heavily dependent on big donations from a comparatively small number of corporations.
Friday's financial statements indicated the fundraising effort had faltered in one respect.
In the year before the last election, the Liberals were able to rely on donations from 11,000 individuals and 2,000 corporate contributors.
Last year those totals dropped by 15 and seven per cent respectively, suggesting either complacency or donor fatigue within the ranks of government supporters.
Still, the $12.5 million take for 2016 is in addition to the $10 million raised in each of 2014 and 2015.
Considering that a well-funded provincial election campaign will consume maybe $10 million -- and the Liberals were already reporting $6 million in the bank at the end of 2015 - the governing party could well be positioned to run campaign 2017 with mainly cash on hand.
A diminished need for further $10,000-a-ticket fundraisers might come as a relief to some of their supporters in the corporate sector.
More than once I've heard big ticket donors say they would welcome a ban on corporate contributions if only because they would no longer have to attend the endless round of fundraising dinners and be patronized by tiresome cabinet ministers and powerless backbenchers.
Others would welcome an end to the political controversy over donations, leaving public policy decisions to be debated on merit as opposed to the suspicion that money talked and talked loudly.
The latter point was well made a year ago by Vicki Huntington, the independent member of the legislature for Delta South, in a speech where she denounced B.C.'s "Wild West approach" on political fundraising.
"British Columbia has the distinction of being the largest Canadian province with no restriction on who finances our political campaigns. Unlimited corporate, union and even out-of-province donations remain the norm," declared Huntington in presenting a private member's Election Finance amendment Act that would eliminate all of those abuses and more.
"In B.C., there is a public conviction that money talks, that democracy is bankrolled by special interests," she continued. "It is a conviction that undermines not only the legitimacy of our democracy but also our trust in the institutions of a democracy."
In these skeptical times, Huntington's larger point remains. And in light of her recent announcement that she will retire at the next election, her comments provide another reminder why her clear independent voice will be missed on the floor of the legislature.
For all the legitimate suspicions raised by big ticket donations, the B.C. Liberals remain wedded to a system that has been a cash cow for them in election after election.
No chance it would survive a change of government. But as in the past three provincial elections where this issue was raised, the Liberals are gambling that the controversy won't be nearly great enough to cost them a win.