Elections Canada refunds up to 60% of the expenses that local riding associations spend in a campaign, provided the candidates receive at least 10 per cent of votes in that election
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OTTAWA — The People’s Party of Canada will go into the next campaign with more money and more resources, thanks in large part to Canada’s system of election refunds for political parties.
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Elections Canada refunds up to 60 per cent of the expenses that local riding associations spend in a campaign, provided the candidates receive at least 10 per cent of votes in that election. That includes money spent on signs, literature and offices and is returned to the local riding associations.
In the 2019 campaign, the PPC cleared that threshold in only one riding in the country, but in 2021 the party of Maxime Bernier expanded that to 26 ridings. A portion of that refund is issued shortly after the final votes are tallied, while the rest is subject to audits by Elections Canada to determine exactly how much of the expenses qualify.
More significantly for parties, Elections Canada also offers 50 per cent refunds on national campaign expenses, like advertising campaigns, leader’s tours and other major expenses, for parties that receive at least two per cent of votes nationwide.
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The PPC didn’t clear that threshold in 2019, but in the most recent campaign received just under five per cent of the vote, enough to allow the party to claim that 50 per cent refund.
PPC spokesman Martin Masse said the party spent approximately $1.3 million on its national campaign, and looks forward to receiving a refund for approximately half that amount.
“For us, like more than half a million dollars is really a lot of money, obviously,” he said. “We already hired two more people working at HQ.”
Masse said the party hopes to take a closer look at the data it has on voters and be able to be more targeted during the next campaign. In the fall election, the party ran on a platform that fought against COVID-19 lockdowns, mandatory vaccination and vaccine passports.
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Bernier, who collects a $104,000 annual salary from the party, started the PPC in 2018 after quitting the Conservative party following a failed run for the leadership.
National campaign expense refunds are significant for parties, in 2015 the last year for which the figures have been made publicly available, the Conservatives and Liberals both got more than $20 million in refunds from Elections Canada and the NDP got nearly $15 million.
Masse said local riding associations will be able to keep the refunds Elections Canada sends them. Some political parties ask riding associations to give a portion or all of those funds back to the national party.
He said they’re optimistic the candidates that broke through the 10 per cent barrier in the fall election will be even more competitive in the next campaign, and he said they’re asking those candidates to put their names on the ballot again.
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“We’re going to let them keep the money,” he said. “We’ve already started asking the candidates who want to run again, and we were planning to get them approved early.”
The riding associations where the PPC cleared the 10-per-cent threshold include leader Bernier’s riding, but also ridings in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, southwestern Ontario and Nova Scotia.
All of the other major political parties from the last campaign are also set to get refunds. The Liberals had 315 ridings where their candidate cleared the 10 per cent threshold, the Conservatives hit that mark in 319 contests and the NDP hit the mark in 263.
Most of the other parties either increased the ridings where they achieved 10 per cent or lost just a handful, but the Green Party’s fortunes declined dramatically.
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In 2019, the Greens had 50 ridings across the country that received at least 10 per cent, but in this past campaign just six ridings hit that benchmark. They also received just 2.3 per cent of the vote nationally, enough to qualify for a national refund, but well below the 6.55 per cent they received in 2019.
The Green campaign was hurt by internal party infighting, as members of the party’s executive attempted to oust leader Annamie Paul, who ultimately resigned after the election.
That infighting led to lawsuits, which limited the amount of money available for the campaign. The party did not respond to multiple enquiries about its financial situation.
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