To carry out their electoral battle of last November 7, the troops of Denis Coderre and those of Valérie Plante spent approximately the same amount, that is to say 1.3 million dollars during their campaign.
The election expense reports filed last month with the City of Montreal reveal that Ensemble Montreal incurred slightly higher costs than those of Projet Montreal, namely 1.387 million against 1.366 million for the party of the re-elected mayor. The Mouvement Montréal party, led by Balarama Holness, spent $99,138 on organizing its election campaign.
Ensemble Montréal was more economical than during the previous campaign. In 2017, Denis Coderre’s party spent $1.5 million while his main opponent’s party barely exceeded $1 million.
Projet Montréal explains that if the 2021 campaign cost more than four years ago, it is in particular because the party collected more donations last year, i.e. $462,000, than in 2017 when the contributions had reached $362,000. Membership in the party was also higher last year, it adds.
The advertisement
A large share of spending by the two major parties was on advertising. Thus, Projet Montréal devoted more than $802,000 to advertising, while Ensemble Montréal set aside nearly $927,000.
Projet Montréal notably used the services of Léger Marketing for an amount of more than $47,000 and those of the firm Upperkut for $322,688. The party also spent nearly $30,000 on Facebook advertising. “Facebook allowed us great agility and responsiveness during the campaign. We could also target geographic areas, ”said Béatrice Saulnier-Yelle, communications officer at Projet Montréal. Projet Montréal still bought advertising in traditional media during the campaign, she said.
For its part, Ensemble Montréal called on the Rinaldi agency for certain advertising expenses and an amount of nearly $299,000 was granted to this firm in the weeks preceding the election. The party purchased advertising on Facebook, but some of those expenses were included in Rinaldi’s charges and did not appear in the party’s report. “But as for several years, we have preferred advertising in traditional media, both in print and on digital platforms,” said Sébastien Lachaine, general manager of Ensemble Montréal, by email.
The campaign for the position of mayor cost Valérie Plante $343,276, against $430,389 for Denis Coderre, while the authorized maximum reached $434,798.
Like Mouvement Montréal, the other parties had no candidates for the 103 elective positions. Some did not even have candidates for mayor of Montreal. This is the case for Équipe LaSalle, which declared expenses of nearly $82,000, and Équipe Anjou, which declared expenses of $33,000. For its part, Action Montreal, whose leader, Gilbert Thibodeau, obtained 1% of the support at the town hall, shows expenses of $7,579.
Repayment
The City of Montreal reimburses part of the candidates’ expenses when they are elected and have obtained at least 15% of the votes cast. It also reimburses 70% of the expenses recorded in the party reports when these expenses have been incurred in accordance with the law. Thursday, the City was not able to specify the amount allocated to reimbursements, the Finance Department having not yet completed the analysis of the reports of the parties and candidates.
Recall that on November 7, Valérie Plante won the mayor of Montreal with 52.1% of the vote against nearly 38% for Denis Coderre. Projet Montréal succeeded in having 52 candidates elected, while Ensemble Montréal obtained 38 seats. Councilor Serge Sasseville, however, left the ranks of Ensemble Montreal last month.