Candidates vying to be the next leader of the federal Liberals are putting a lot more than their reputations on the line.
Past leadership hopefuls have found themselves heavily indebted years after running unsuccessful campaigns, prompting the Liberal Party to slash spending limits by nearly one-third heading into this year’s election.
“Travel (costs), staying in a hotel, running a website, all those things cost a little bit of money and it adds up,” says Liberal insider Tim Murphy, who served as chief of staff for former prime minister Paul Martin.
Murphy, co-chair of next Ontario Liberal campaign, told CTV’s Canada AM on Tuesday that despite the Liberals cutting campaign spending limits to $950,000, down from $3.4 million during the 2006 leadership race, Canada’s sheer size makes any leadership campaign an expensive proposition.
“All these candidates are putting themselves out there and taking some financial risk,” he said, adding that candidates must contribute $75,000 to the Liberal Party just to enter the race.
In past leadership races, a number of unsuccessful candidates had trouble repaying their debts, prompting the Liberal party to limit the amount of debt carried by a candidate to $75,000.
“We have seen some problems in the last two leadership races,” Murphy said. “Some of the candidates had very difficult times raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
One of the candidates who exited the race in debt was former MP Martha Hall Findlay, who reportedly paid it off shortly before entering the current campaign to lead the Liberals.
“That hovers over people,” Murphy said.
He added that heavily favoured front-runner Justin Trudeau would likely have an easier time securing donations with his instant name recognition, which will translate to lower campaign costs.
“If you’re a Justin Trudeau, it’s going to be easier for people to know who you are,” Murphy said. “Some of these candidates, like a David Bertschi are not well-known at all. It’s unlikely that someone in Kamloops, B.C. has heard of him, unless he can find a way to get there,” he said.
“Whereas if you’re Justin Trudeau my guess is that people in Kamloops have heard of you.”
