Thursday, May 1, 2008

One quarter and a whole lot of dollars

Today, Elections Canada (synonymous of late with bad news for the Conservatives), delivered some remarkably good news for the NDP, confirming the party's 2nd place spot in fundraising so far this year.

For the first quarter of 2008, fundraising results look like this:

Conservative Party = $4,954,550.22 from 44,345 contributors
New Democratic Party = $1,119,647.67 from 13,329 contributors
Liberal Party = $846,129.37 from 10,169 contributors
Green Party = $210,962.82 from 4,731 contributors
Bloc Quebecois = $37,006.31 from 463 contributors

And while it's still a way to go to catch up with the Blue team's slowing cash-grabbing operation, the NDP's fundraising momentum is moving in the right direction, surpassing the Liberals with almost 30 percent more donations from 31 percent more donors (a week after Dion was trumpetting an imaginary “fundamental grassroots shift in the Liberal Party’s culture”).

With this poll, followed by this poll, followed by today's numbers, there's new evidence that more and more Canadians are rallying behind Layton's NDP as the real oppositon to Harper.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only fair comparison is to the 1st quarter fundraising numbers in 2007 and the Liberals were the only party to increase both in total donations and donors compared to last year. About 60% higher in dollars and over 130% in donors compared to the NDP which is down 10% in each of those categories and 5% and 2% respectively for the Tories. I should point out that with the leadership contest debt deadline approaching many of our people are splitting their effort and money between party and leadership campaigns so the fairest comparison would be to add up all the donations to the former leadership contenders as well, in which case the Liberals aren't just up in percentage but in actual dollars as well. These numbers are actually positive for the Liberal party.

Blogging Horse said...

Well, the NDP beat the Liberals in the first quarter of 2007 too and Liberals blamed their leadership race then also.

So, how much longer are Liberals going to use their 2006 leadership race as an excuse for their waning performace? (Funny how that question applies to so many matters, including this topic.)

The "only fair comparison" in fact, is how much money a party is able to collect in a three month period. And compared to the Liberals, the NDP collected nearly 30% more in that period.

This, in spite of Liberals having three times as many MPs to shake the bushes and allegedly a much larger membership base.

James Curran said...

Actually it was a quarter million in the first quarter to leadership camps. Quito's numbers are accurate. So if you ad the quarter mill, are your 30% figures accurate? Wait til you have your leaadership after this election and Mulcair blows 2 million. You'll see.

Blogging Horse said...

If panicked leadership race debt retirement was the problem, shouldn't the party leader be debt free by now, instead of still owing a figure just south of $850,000?

Rather unconvincing.

The unnamed Liberal in today's Globe is somewhat more convincing:

"Why would anyone send money in when they know the party will just use it to keep propping up a lousy Conservative government? It's nuts. We had a solid financial footing when Dion took over and it has been completely frittered away on a Harper majority."

And this, from a card-carrying Liberal! If that's what Dion's “fundamental grassroots shift in the Liberal Party’s culture” means, then the Red Team have more problems than just a lack of fundraising.

James Curran said...

I'd like to meet this so-called card carrying Liberal who knows less than dirt about party fundraising.

Malcolm+ said...

In fact, the NDP raised more money that the Liberatives and the RedGreens combined - to the tune of $62,555 or 6% more than the combined Liberative-RedGreen total. That can't be good news for either Stephane Harper-Dion or Elizabeth Harper-Dion-May.

Even more interesting is the average donation size for each party:

- Conservatives - $112
- New Democrats - $84
- Liberatives - $83
- Bloc Quebecois - $79
- RedGreens - $45

Given that the Liberatives historically raised far more money from far more people as compared to the New Democrats, I suspect that this may be the first time ever that the Liberatives have trailed in avergae donation size.

Oh, and there is actually only one provincial NDP government with a record of profligate incompetence. It was led by Bob Rae.

You remember Bob Rae? He's a Liberative now - sitting on his hands to help Harper accomplish his goals.

New Democrats are no longer acocuntable for Bob Rae's incompetence and irresponsibility.

Malcolm+ said...

That should be: "Liberatives historically raised far more money from far FEWER people as compared to the New Democrats."