Canadians are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to political preferences.
Data published late Friday by Elections Canada show the Conservative Party of Canada continues to dominate its political rivals when it comes to fundraising, just as the party dominates its rivals in opinion polls.
For the three-month period ending September 30 — a period when it appeared the country was headed for yet another general election — nearly 40,000 Canadians wrote a cheque for the Tories. The total value of their contributions was about $3.8 million.
On the fundraising front, the Conservatives alone did better than all of their political opponents combined — who found $3.3 million from about 37,000 contributors in the third quarter.
A recent Canwest News Service/Global National poll conducted by Ipsos Reid found that 40 per cent of Canadians would vote Conservative and just 25 per cent would vote for the Liberals, a level of popular support that is below where they polled in last fall's election.
The Liberal party, meanwhile, was cheered by the fact that it alone among the federal parties was able grow the amount of donations received in the third quarter this year, compared to the third quarter of 2008 .. [Read the rest]