Canadian Federal Election, 1993 - Finances

Finances

The election was held under the Election Expenses Act of 1974. This forced parties to disclose most donations, but put few limits on who could donate and how much could be given. Individual donations up to $1,150 were given a tax credit, encouraging such pledges. The Conservatives had the largest budget, spending $10.4 million on their national campaign; the Liberals spent $9.9 million, while the NDP spent $7.4 million. The Bloc and Reform spent far less, both spending less than $2 million on their national campaigns. Actual election spending is far larger than these numbers indicate: each candidate raised substantial amounts of money independently of the national campaign. In this era there were also large expenses, such as polling and fundraising costs, that did not need to be disclosed.

The different parties drew their funding from different sources. In the year of the election, two traditional parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, each received about 60% of their funding from corporations and the rest from individuals. For the NDP half of the funding came from individuals, and a third came from trade unions. The Reform Party relied almost wholly on individual donations, with only some 12% coming from corporations. The Bloc relied almost solely on individual donations, as its party charter barred donations from corporations. The NDP had by far the most donors, with over 65,000, but the average donation was only $80. By contrast the 45,000 Conservative donors gave more than $200 on average.

The Liberals quickly recouped their election expenses once they were in government. The Liberals held a substantial advantage in funding for the next two elections as they enjoyed the majority of corporate campaign contributions after the collapse of the Progressive Conservatives. Until 2003 when Jean Chrétien passed Bill C-24, which banned business donations and provided a subsidy to each party based on their popular vote, the Liberals did not see the need to develop a system of extensive grassroots fundraising like the other parties.

The Bloc and Reform had spent little during the campaign, and also received more support once their prominent position in parliament was made clear. One of the Reform Party's successful developments was its extensive grassroots fundraising network, which is still used by its latest incarnation (in a merger with the Progressive Conservatives), the Conservative Party of Canada.

The NDP and Conservatives had more problems after the vote. The NDP found itself deeply in debt, but recouped some of it by selling their Ottawa headquarters to the Ukrainian Embassy. The Conservatives, despite cutting back on spending late in the campaign, were some $7.5 million in debt by the end of the election, and it took years to clear this burden. The heavy debt load would hamper the party's ability to campaign in subsequent elections, and this would lead to its eventual merger with Reform's successor, the Canadian Alliance.