David Akin's On the Hill :: Tories continue to dominate fundraising but Liberals improve

Info/Contact for David Akin

Want a widget like this?

Get On The Hill updates in your RSS reader

Home

Search this blog:

Custom Search

Subscribe to this blog using your favourite feed reader:

Who pays for this blog?
I receive no fees, considerations, etc. etc. for the posts on this blog nor do I have any plans to accept any. My salary is paid by Canwest Global Communications Corp. I work for that company as the Ottawa-based National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service.
The blog publishing platform used here is called Blogware and it's developed by Tucows Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. My use of Blogware should not be taken as an endorsement of that company. Like all Blogware users, I do not pay any fees for the use of this service.
I participate in program. Google pays me some money and, for that, I give Google some space on this site to display ads. Google sells those ads and Google, not me, decides what advertising content you are seeing. I do not filter these ads and take no responsibility for them. Readers should not assume I endorse any of the products or services advertised here.
If you think other disclosures are appropriate in this space, I'd like to hear from you. All of my contact details are always at www.davidakin.com You can read more about this section

Main Page » Politics

Previous:	Change EI system, bank says
Next:	The NDP on fundraising and party finances - First quarter was an odd quarter

Tories continue to dominate fundraising but Liberals improve

by DavidAkin on Fri 01 May 2009 01:38 PM EDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

In the first quarter of this year, 69,451 Canadians contributed a total of $7.1 million to a federal political party.

Both those numbers were down significantly compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, a quarter which saw political tension in Ottawa raised to new heights as a Stephane Dion-led coalition threatened to unseat Stephen Harper's Conservatives.

Still, when compared to the first three months of 2008, overall political financial activity was off but by much less. Year-over-year contributions fell by 0.6 per cent and the overall number of contributors fell by about five per cent.

But there were some substantial changes so far as individual parties go.

Though the Conservative Party is absolutely dominant -- continuing to raise more money than all other parties combined from more contributors than all other parties combained -- the Liberals appear to be finally seeing some results in fundraising efforts that have trailed all other parties while the NDP has show a sharp drop.

More than 39,000 Canadians kicked in a combined $4.36 million dollars to the Conservatives in the last quarter, a drop of 31 per cent from the previous quarter and a drop of 12 per cent from the same quarter a year ago.

And while the Liberal haul of $1.83 million in the first quarter of this year was down about 20 per cent compared to the last quarter, it was more than double or up 117% compared to the same period last year. More than 15,000 people cut a cheque to the Liberal. Just two years ago, in the first quarter of 2007, fewer than 4,400 Canadians were contributing to that party.

Meanwhile, the NDP's financial haul at just $595,611 dropped by 47 per cent year-over-year and 66 per cent quarter-over-quarter. There were just over 10,000 Canadians contributing to the NDP.

The Green Party raised $211,269 from 2,868 people in the quarter, about the same as the same period last year, but that was down 61 per cent from the last quarter.

The Bloc Quebecois raised $122,842 from 1,600 people, down 35 per cent quarter-over-quarter but up substantially from the $37,006 it raised from 463 people in the first quarter last year.

election financing, political financing

Posted to:

Politics

Comments

Post a comment

Re: Tories continue to dominate fundraising but Liberals improve

by Two Hats on Fri 01 May 2009 02:39 PM EDT | Permanent Link

"Both those numbers were down significantly compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, a quarter which saw political tension in Ottawa raised to new heights as a Stephane Dion-led coalition threatened to unseat Stephen Harper's Conservatives."
More relevant to fundraising than the budget/coalition brouhaha, the last Q of 2008 also included an election, which always boosts donations for all parties significantly.

Re: Re: Tories continue to dominate fundraising but Liberals improve

by Pundits' Guide on Fri 01 May 2009 03:51 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Two Hats, I would have agreed with you until I looked at the actual numbers from last year.

Following Hélène Buzzetti's story on the so-called "Ignatieff Effect" on Liberal fund-raising after December 10, I broke down the named contributions of over $200 for each party by date, and grouped them into Q1, Q2, Summer, Campaign, pre-Dec 9, and post-Dec9 (see the post here).

It was a complete surprise to me that several parties left fundraising more or less by the wayside during the campaign itself, including the Liberals, the Bloc, and (comparatively) the Conservatives. Much of their fundraising was done in the Summer period, and again at the end of the year (as is common every year to maximize contributions from people focussed on getting their tax receipts).

So, go figure. I always learn something new by looking at the numbers.

Re: Re: Re: Tories continue to dominate fundraising but Liberals improve

by someone in the know. on Fri 01 May 2009 05:03 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Actually PunditGuide, one of your findings is easy to explain.

Two days before the election, Elections Canada changed a 20 year old interpretation (with no legislative reason to do so) and declared that any fundraising expenses by the parties during the writ would count against the limit.
The previous interpretation was that fundraising expenses at the national and local level did not count as campaign expenses and were outside the limits.
Just another example of Elections Canada making up the rules as it goes along. Interesting to observe which parties benefit from these ad hoc and unjustified rule changes...

Re: Re: Re: Re: Tories continue to dominate fundraising but Liberals improve

by Pundits' Guide on Fri 01 May 2009 06:20 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Thanks, s-i-t-k, that is very interesting indeed, and something I did not know. Thanks for pointing it out.

Post comment:

Format Type:
	Convert newlines
	Receive comment notifications for this article
Subject:

Comment:

Comment verification:

Please enter the text you see inside the graphic to post your comment:

You are not currently logged in. If you would like your user information to be displayed with your comment, please enter your login information below.

Username:
Password:

If you would like to post contact information on your comment, please enter your information into the optional fields below:

Contact information:

Name:
URL:		example: http://yourdomain.com
Email:

Please note: email will not be displayed on the site, only for the blog owner. If logged in, URL will only be used.