Eight ways money fuelled Conservatives, Liberals and NDP

The Liberals spent $1,646,563 on ads, 93 per cent of it on TV ads in a year Justin Trudeau was elected leader. The Conservatives were a close second, spending $1,567,575, 78 per cent of it on TV ads. The Liberal splurge is striking: it didn’t buy a TV ad in 2012, according to that year’s return.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, love radio ads – the party bought $326,211 worth in 2013, compared to $6,206 for the Liberals and just $3,017 the NDP spent on both radio and TV ads.,

This is where the NDP’s third-place fundraising status really stings for the party. It spent $200,087 on all advertising, virtually all of it on “other” advertising – not radio or TV. That “other” figure, at least, outpaced the other parties.

Total expenses for the Tories were $22.2-million in 2013, ahead of the Liberals at $18-million and the NDP at $11-million.

Conservative revenue was $26.5-million, including fundraising and government transfers, for a surplus of roughly $4.3-million.

The Liberals raised the second-most amount of money, but the NDP had the next best surplus. Liberal revenue was $19.5-million, for a surplus of $1.5-million. NDP revenue was $13.8-million, for a surplus of $2.8-million.

Each part lists its expenses by category – “polling” is one. The Liberals spent $121,010, the NDP $110,664 and the Conservatives $0.

The line item begs for further review. It seems unlikely that Stephen Harper’s party paid for no polling last year, particularly when they used to spend substantially on it - averaging $397,599 on polling in 2009, 2010 and 2011 before dropping to just $8,186 in 2012 and $0 last year.

So, why the drop-off?

Polling work could be done entirely in-house and rolled in as salaries, benefits and office expenses, or categorized as something else – “research,” “professional services,” “miscellaneous.” It’s unclear. A party official declined comment.

Thomas Mulcair’s party spent $1.2-million on “travel and hospitality” in 2013, down from $2.3-million the year before, and bought virtually no radio or TV ads after spending $1.7-million on them in 2012. The clamp-down helped the party become debt free, a feat not included in the 2013 returns but announced earlier this year.

The audit firm that carried out Senate spending reviews got caught in a controversy when it was revealed Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein allegedly used a backroom contact at Deloitte, Michael Runia, to seek information about the ongoing audit of Senator Mike Duffy’s expenses. Deloitte claimed the integrity of the audit was never breached, despite RCMP documents signaling the Tories expected Mr. Gerstein’s contact to seek information on his behalf. When it came time to audit their financial statements this year, the Conservative Fund – led by Mr. Gerstein himself – once again hired Deloitte.

The party transferred $14,350 to then-Labrador MP Peter Penashue on March 1, 2013, as was reported last week, two weeks before he stepped down amid questions about his expense claims to run again in a by-election. The March payment came after the Conservatives gave Penashue $30,000 in 2012. The party money was used to repay some of Mr. Penashue’s election expenses. Mr. Penashue ultimately lost his by-election and is no longer an MP. The final payment was among hundreds of thousands of dollars in transfers by the parties to candidates and others reported to Elections Canada.

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have over $10-million in cash and short-term investments heading into next year, an election year, and $16.3-million in net assets.

The Liberals had $9-million in cash and short-term deposits, maturing in 2015 and 2016, and $9.4-million in net assets (more than double what it had at the end of 2010, months before the last federal election).

At the end of 2013, the NDP had $1.4-million in cash – presumably used to pay the balance of a $490,000 loan early this year – and $5.9-million in net assets.