MPP Singh outracing, outraising NDP rivals

Claims 75% of 1,517 are first-time donors

NDP leadership hopeful Jagmeet Singh raised substantially more money than his three rivals combined between April and June, according to political fundraising numbers released Monday from Elections Canada.

Singh raised $353,944 in the second quarter, far outstripping runner-up Charlie Angus, who raised $123,574. Niki Ashton raised $70,124, while Guy Caron pulled together $46,970.

Singh’s campaign says the Ontario MPP has raised more in his first 47 days than either Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer had at the same point in their leadership campaigns. His team says Trudeau and Scheer had raised $82,105 and $176,112, respectively, in a similar amount of time.

“Our fundraising numbers show how the NDP can take on the Liberals and Conservatives in 2019,” Singh said in a press release.

Singh’s campaign says he had 1,517 donors, with roughly 75 per cent being first-time donors to the party.

“It’s exactly what I was expecting,” said Jesse Brady, Angus’s communications director. “His campaign has actually been telling people for months … that they had outraced everybody.”

Brady said Angus’s campaign has been meeting its fundraising targets, and is pleased with the results so far.

The number of donations per candidate didn’t vary nearly as much as the amount of money raised. Singh’s campaign attracted 1,681 donations, while Angus and Niki raised money from 1,285 and 1,006 donations, respectively. Caron had just 568 donations.

In an interview, Ashton claimed her donors don’t have the deep pockets of Singh’s supporters, but said she’s running a grassroots campaign. “A lot of people who are donating are young people, students, seniors, people who don’t have much to give, but are giving what they can,” she said.

Ashton also said her fundraising has picked up in June and July. Last week her campaign advertised that she had raised more than $100,000 in July alone. July figures aren’t captured in the second quarter results.

Singh had 77 donors who made the maximum donation of $1,550 allowable under Elections Canada rules. By comparison, Angus had only three, and Ashton and Caron had none.

Angus and Ashton’s results are slightly better than their first-quarter showings, when they raised $110,765 and $65,521, respectively. However, Caron’s numbers have dipped slightly, down from $57,235 raised between January and March.

Singh didn’t officially join the race until May.

In a statement, Caron said he’s pleased to have raised more than $100,000 overall. “It’s a testament to a growing campaign that started with low name recognition for me,” he said. “Our numbers have been steadily climbing in July and we’re excited for the home stretch.”

B.C. MP Peter Julian, who dropped out of the race last month citing fundraising woes, raised $28,673 in the second quarter. Former veterans’ ombudsman Pat Stogran, who dropped out of the race in June, had raised $14,959.

At the party level, the Conservatives led the way in the second quarter with a total of $4,073,665 taken in from 32,427 contributions, according to numbers from the party. That’s down from $5.3 million the Conservatives reported in the first quarter, but the party says a further $6.5 million was raised in 2017 by its leadership candidates.

The Liberals raised $3,023,955 in the second quarter from 30,149 donors, the party says. That’s up slightly from $2.8 million raised in the first quarter.

The NDP as a whole received $825,985 in contributions from 12,448 donations in the second quarter, not including donations to leadership candidates. That’s a dip from the same quarter in 2016, which saw more than $1 million come in.

After bringing in $908,892 in the first quarter of 2017, the NDP is on pace for its worst fundraising haul in years, partly owing to leadership candidates pulling away cash that may have gone to the party.