Poilievre's party raised $35M in 2023, Trudeau's Liberals raised $15M

OTTAWA -

Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives are touting a record-setting fundraising year — his first full calendar year at the helm of the party — while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals raised less than half of that in donations from Canadians.

In 2023, the Conservative Party of Canada brought in $35.2 million in donations from supporters, breaking "all fundraising records for any political party in Canadian history," according to the party.

"The unprecedented momentum of the Conservative Leader and his common sense message broke another record bringing in $11.9 million in Q4. In December alone, the Party raised $7.08 million," said party spokesperson Sarah Fischer. "It couldn't be more clear that Canadians want change."

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In collecting more than 200,000 donations last year, the party outpaced its previous 2018 record for the most any party has received in a non-election year.

These fundraising figures come after Poilievre and his inner circle spent much of last summer and fall enacting efforts to broaden his appeal, from a mini-makeover — swapping his eyeglasses and suit jackets for T-shirts and aviators — to a series of national advertisements aimed at softening and re-introducing the career politician to Canadians.

Promising more to come, Conservative Fund leader Robert Staley told delegates during the party's September Quebec City convention that with the party flush with fundraising dollars, the party will keep spending on advertising to "influence voters" in key ridings.

Poilievre, who is quoted in the release, said: "these results prove support for my common sense plan."

But one Liberal minister isn't convinced.

"It's a great time to sow fear and division, and there's a lot of profit in it," Health Minister Mark Holland told reporters on Parliament Hill Wednesday. "The Conservatives have been enormously successful in exploiting that, but what do they offer in way of solutions? Nothing."

In 2023, the Liberals raised a total of $15.6 million, according to Elections Canada's financial returns.

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Holland said he's not pressed by the sizeable gap between the two parties' fundraising coffers, suggesting that when Canadians sit down at their kitchen tables to contemplate how they'll vote in the next federal election, they'll see through Poilievre's "collection of talking points," and see the Liberals tried "to make things better."

Trudeau's party saw an uptick in donations in the fourth quarter, a period during which the Conservatives' polling put them into potential majority government territory.

"It's easy to be the fun parent. It's easy to tell your kids what they want to hear. It's easy to go take them and do fun things, and tell them all their problems aren't their fault … It's very hard to be the one that says, 'this is a tough time,'" Holland said.

Approximately 93 per cent of Liberal donations were for amounts less than $200, which the party is framing as a "true testament to the party's strong grassroots support."

Defending their fundraising efforts and the "tens of thousands of Canadians" that the party engaged last year, Liberal Party of Canada spokesperson Parker Lund said that Elections Canada filings "continue to highlight that Liberal supporters are getting far more value for their donations than Conservatives."

"Annual returns show that the Conservatives spent $53.7M on fundraising costs from 2016 through 2022, while the Liberal Party's figure was just $21.8M," Lund said.

As for the other parties, the federal New Democrats raised less in the entire year than the Conservatives raised in any quarter of 2023, rounding out the year with $6.8 million in donations.

On Wednesday, the NDP launched an online attack ad against the Official Opposition leader, framing him as a "cut and gut" Conservative. 

The Green Party raised $1.9 million and the Bloc Quebecois raised $1.7 million.