City Hall Update: Campaign Expenses

Yesterday the 2009 municipal campaign expense reports were made public by the DGEQ. Here are the total expenses of the three main Montreal parties:

• – Union Montréal: $1.5 million
• – Vision Montréal: $1.4 million
• – Projet Montréal: $245,000

When one compares with amount of money spent with the amount of votes received for each party’s mayoral candidate, here’s the dollar per vote breakdown:

• – Union Montréal: $9.35 per vote
• – Vision Montréal: $10 per vote
• – Projet Montréal: $2.30 per vote

What is most noticeable is the huge difference between Projet Montréal and the two larger parties. Simply put, Projet Montréal spent way less money than the other parties and got a lot more bang for their buck. This speaks volumes of the dissatisfaction that a large chunk of the electorate felt towards the two big parties. Even with a major funding (and therefore advertising and voter contact) handicap the party was still able to see a large amount of support materialize on election day.

Also of note is that fact that Vision was largely able to keep up with Union in terms of expenditures. Gérald Tremblay had a number of key fundraising advantages going into the campaign such as incumbency, the support of the business community, and a large network of sitting councillors with their accompanying lists of contacts. In the aftermath of the election some commentators credited Tremblay’s reelection to his party’s superior get out the vote machine. These numbers would imply that Harel was on a more level playing field.

As per electoral regulations 50% of these expenses will be reimbursed by the City. This will leave a total bill of around $1.6 million.

Projet Montréal has posted their report on their website, available here.