Editorial cartoon by Brian GableBrian Gable/The Globe and Mail
Fundraising for all five of Canada's largest political parties was down in the third quarter of this year, but the Conservatives remain far and away the most adept party at convincing Canadians to open their wallets.
The drop in the third quarter numbers – reported Wednesday by Elections Canada – is most likely a combination of the fact that the first two quarters overlapped with the May 2 federal election, while the third quarter coincided with the run up to several provincial election campaigns.
The Conservative Party raised $3.1-million in the third quarter, down from $8.2-million in the previous quarter. So far this year, the Tories have raised $18.6-million from 132,438 contributions.
That amount for 2011 is more than twice that of the Liberals, who are the second place party in terms of fundraising. The Grits raised $1.3-million from 17,858 contributions in the third quarter, bringing their 2011 total up to $7.6-million from 68,372 donations.
While the NDP usurped the Liberals as Canada's Official Opposition, the party still has work to do on the fundraising front. Its third quarter numbers show $880,766.07 was raised from 14,048 contributions. For 2011 to date, the NDP has raised $5.9-million from 54,349 contributions.
The Green Party of Canada has raised $1.3-million so far this year from 13,422 donors and the Bloc Québécois raised $649,748 so far this year from 6,615 contributions.
The Bloc, which was reduced to just four seats in the May election, has seen donations slow to a trickle in spite of the fact that there was no provincial election in Quebec this fall. In the third quarter, it raised just $18,552 from 293 contributors.
Bill Curry