The Liberal Party of Canada — once the dominant political machine in the Canada – continues to stumble financially. For the third quarter of this year, the Liberals were badly outgunned when it came to fundraising relative to their chief rivals, the Conservatives. The Conservatives raised nearly four dollars for every dollar the Liberals were able to raise.
And, if that's not bad enough, there were a lot more Canadians in the three month period ending Sept. 30 willing to cut a cheque to Jack Layton's party than to Stephane Dion's party.
Elections Canada released third quarter party financial return transactions a few minutes ago. I've got lots of number-crunching to go through but here's the basic scorecard:
- When it comes to contributions from individuals, it's probably about time to talk about the Big Blue Machine: The Conservative Party of Canada found more than 32,800 people who would write a cheque to Stephen Harper's team and the party collected a total of $3.15-million from those individuals. Their nearest rivals weren't even close on either count.
- The Liberals raised just under $794,000 in the quarter from 7,849 people.
- The NDP found 10,857 contributors — many more than the Liberals — though on a per capita basis, NDP supporters tended to give less than a Liberal supporter. As a result, the NDP finished the quarter by raising about $594,000.
- The Green Party raised more than $218,000 from 3,143 individuals.
- How well did the Bloc Quebecois do? Well, there are nearly as many MPs — 308 — as there were BQ contributors in the quarter – 310. The combined haul from that group was $31,520.