Federal Conservatives out-fundraised Liberals by more than $1M in 2016

The federal Conservative party raised a million more dollars than the Liberals last year, but spent twice as much as the governing party in order to raise the cash.

Annual financial reports published today show the Conservatives raised $18.25 million from 82,662 donors in 2016, while the Liberals pulled in $17.18 million from 82,285 donors.

The records also show, however, the Conservatives spent $6.85 million on fundraising activities, compared to the Liberals’ $3.1 million.

The federal NDP was a distant third, pulling in $5.39 million from 26,754 people and spending $315,000 to do so.

The Conservative fundraising totals for 2016 don’t account for the money raised by candidates in the leadership race that was underway for much of last year; in 2016, $3.9 million was raised.

Overall, the Liberals spent $18.58 million in 2016, the Tories $21.98 million and the NDP $8.3 million. The Tories also brought in $1.57 million in membership fees in 2016, down from $1.9 million the year before.

But the Liberals saw a far bigger drop in that revenue stream, thanks to the end of membership fees for that party — in 2015, they brought in more than $2 million in membership sales, but only $655,000 last year.

A spokesperson for the party said they still consider 2016 a banner year.

“(It) highlights how Canada’s Liberal movement is seeing continued success in closing the gap with the Conservative party after their 10 years in power, and is continuing to consistently outraise the NDP,” Braeden Caley said in an email.