The avalanche of advertisements before the last elections cost the CAQ dearly: the training spent $5.6 million outside the election period last year, an amount not counted in the spending ceiling provided for by law. An expert pleads to amend the rules.
As of last spring, Quebec voters were bombarded with advertisements extolling the merits of CAQ leader François Legault, as well as the party’s record during its four years in power. Advertisements were broadcast on TV, radio, social media and even on huge roadside billboards.
According to its 2022 financial report, recently filed, the political party invested $5,638,734 in advertising and polls last year, compared to $346,000 the previous year. Added to this is $181,600 spent on social media.
This is a significant amount, considering that the election campaign itself cost him an additional $6.9 million for the national component and expenses in the ridings.
Invited to comment on this strategy, the executive director and chief organizer of the CAQ declined the offer of the Log. “The results speak for themselves,” said Brigitte Legault simply.
The amount of $5.6 million, she specifies, however, covers the entire year excluding the election campaign and includes tallies, surveys and other forms of communications. So it’s not just about the pre-election advertising campaign.
Spending explosion
Be that as it may, the other parties have spent much less on advertising than their CAQ rival. The PLQ declares advertising expenditures of just over $1.3 million for 2022, the Parti Québécois $585,000, Québec solidaire less than $575,000 and the PCQ less than $400,000.
The CAQ also invested much more than during the last election year, in 2018, when it declared expenses of less than $800,000. The PLQ, then in power, for its part, accumulated costs under $900,000.
Amend the law?
For political science professor Thierry Giasson, the CAQ approach has circumvented “the spirit of the law”. “We almost double the budget,” he argues.
The major advertising campaign made it possible to establish the stakes of the electoral campaign in the minds of Quebec voters, argues this specialist in political communication. “It served to fix in people’s heads the fact that this election was supposed to be a referendum on François Legault’s performance in managing the health crisis,” he underlines.
At the federal level, pre-election advertising is subject to a spending limit, notes Thierry Giasson. Parties can spend approximately $1.4 million between June 30 and the start of the election campaign in the fall.
Mr. Giasson pleads for a revision in this sense of the Quebec electoral law, in order to control expenses up to six months before the election.
In analysis
Before leaving office last year, the former Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, Pierre Reid, had also expressed the wish to update the law.
“Limiting the ability to spend in the pre-election period, and therefore to intervene in the political debate, limits […] certain individual rights such as freedom of expression. We must therefore be careful before recommending the imposition of a pre-election spending limit,” writes the spokesperson for the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec (DGEQ).
According to Julie St-Arnaud Drolet, “several electoral cycles are necessary to establish an appropriate framework supported by data and analysis”.
Amount spent on election campaign
- CAQ: $6.9M
- QLP: $5.6 million
- QS: $5.3M
- PQ: $2.4M
- PCQ: $4.3M
Amount spent on non-election advertising
- CAQ: $5.6M
- QLP: $1.3M
- QP: $585,000
- QS: $574,000
- PCQ: $395,000
Source: Élections Québec tables provided in the parties’ financial reports. Amounts have been rounded.