Conservatives still lead in party fundraising as Liberals close in

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, June 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA — The Conservatives are still bringing in more through donations than any other federal political party, but their fundraising has dropped since the spring election.

The Tories raised just over $9.1 million in the quarter that ended in June, reporting donations from 82,681 people.

That outpaced the Liberals, who brought in $7.7 million from more than 116,000 donors. The new figures bring the governing party’s total in the first half of this year to just over $21.3 million -- already more than its 2024 total of $14 million.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s party is also counting many more donors than the Liberals did in the last year of Justin Trudeau’s leadership. In 2024, the party reported donations from 27,661 people in the first quarter, rising to 33,609 in the quarter ending in December.

Trudeau announced his plans to step down in early January and the ensuing Liberal leadership race raised a lot of attention and money, with 156,489 people donating in the first quarter of 2025.

The Conservatives did see a steep drop this quarter from their pre-election fundraising push, which brought in $28 million from 148,676 donors in the first three months of this year.

Pierre Poilievre’s party has been a fundraising juggernaut since he took over the leadership in 2022, setting a record for political party fundraising in 2024 when it pulled in $42 million.

The party also spent big on advertising, travel and polling, and saw its total spending reach nearly $50 million last year.

Poilievre failed to hold his seat in the April election and is running in a byelection in the rural Alberta riding of Battle River--Crowfoot. Voters there head to the polls on Aug. 18.

The Conservatives were the only major party to submit their 2024 financial statements to Elections Canada by the deadline. Those figures were released in July. Elections Canada said the other parties were granted an extension.

The NDP’s numbers have been steady this year, with more than 38,149 people giving the party $1.9 million in the last quarter. It brought in $1.8 million from 37,538 donors in the first three months of 2025.

The party raised about $6.3 million total in 2024, according to quarterly results posted by Elections Canada.

The New Democrats lost official party status in the April election, winning just seven seats. Political strategists have warned they’re in a challenging financial position, with election loans to repay and far less money coming in from Elections Canada.

The federal elections agency pays rebates for candidates who win more than 10 per cent of the vote in a given riding during an election. Fewer than 50 of the 343 New Democrat candidates reached that threshold in the recent election, compared to more than 230 in the 2019 and 2021 races.

The NDP is preparing to hold a leadership race that officially kicks off in September and will end in March. Jagmeet Singh resigned as leader after failing to win his seat on April 28 and Don Davies has served as interim leader.

The Green Party raised just over $1 million, with contributions from 14,512 people. That’s up from the first quarter, when the party raised $818,000 and counted 5,181 donors. Leader Elizabeth May was the only Green to win a seat in the House of Commons in April.

The Bloc Quebecois, which was reduced to 22 seats from the 33 it held before the election, raised $674,590 in the second quarter from 4,502 donors.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 6, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press