Conservatives spent nearly $3 million more than the Liberals in the 2019 federal election, and nearly three times as much as the NDP.
The Conservatives spent nearly to the limit in the 2019 federal election — more than the Liberals did and almost triple the amount shelled out by the New Democrats.
Campaign returns filed by most parties and posted to Elections Canada’s website show the Conservatives spent $28.9 million during the fall election campaign, nearly hitting the $29.1 million limit. This was narrowly more than the $26.1 million the Liberals spent.
Both parties spent significantly more than the New Democrats. The NDP’s election expenses totalled $10.3 million — barely a third of what the party was allowed to spend during the campaign.
The Green and People’s parties requested and were granted filing extensions by Elections Canada. The filings for the Bloc Québécois had not been posted as of Monday evening.
The numbers show that the Conservatives and Liberals were fighting on a level playing field as far as money is concerned. This parity extended to the pre-election period, when the Conservatives spent $1.8 million and the Liberals spent $1.7 million on partisan advertising. The NDP spent only $66,000 on partisan advertising over the pre-election period. (The legislated limit on that spending was just over $2 million.)
The Conservatives shelled out most of their pre-election spending on television ads — $1.2 million of their pre-election advertising went on TV. The Liberals spent just $344,000 on pre-election TV advertising, opting instead to spent nearly half of their pre-election dollars on online ads.
During the campaign period itself, the Conservatives spent $15.9 million on advertising. About $9.3 million of that went to TV spots, $4.6 million was spent online and $1.7 million went to radio ads.
In all three categories, the Conservatives outspent the Liberals. The Liberals spent $14 million on ads during the campaign, including $5.2 million for TV ads and $3.8 million for online ads. The Liberals spent another $3.8 million on ads categorized as “other” in the election filings.
Nearly all of the $3.9 million the NDP spent on