Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has amassed as many donations as all of the other hopefuls combined; nearly three times those of his closest rival, Jean Charest.
Mr. Poilievre has raised $4,042,716.75 for his leadership campaign since 1er April, according to data from the Conservative Party’s financial report for the second quarter of 2022, which compiles donations made through June 30.
This is more than what candidates Jean Charest ($1,376,491.70), Leslyn Lewis ($709,060.76), Roman Baber ($504,649.69) and Scott Aitchison ($363. $922) combined, even adding the loot from disqualified contestant Patrick Brown ($541,706.75).
More individual donations were also recorded for the Poilievre campaign, with 36,803 donations averaging $110. By comparison, former Quebec Premier Jean Charest can claim 4,190 donations of $330 on average, and Ontario MP Leslyn Lewis, 5,522 donations of around $130.
This report excludes the amounts offered to candidates at the very beginning of the Conservative leadership, in March.
Poilievre first in Quebec
The MP for Carleton is also the one who collected the largest number of donations from Quebecers during this period, numbering 2,205 (less than 6% of his total donors). Jean Charest obtained 1,265 donations from his own province (30% of the total). However, the donors of the Charest clan in Quebec provided more money ($491,556) than those, more numerous, of the Poilievre clan ($226,076).
At least 244 residents of the City of Montreal have contributed to the campaign of Pierre Poilievre this spring, against 190 for that of Jean Charest.
In March, an initial party financial report showed a close fundraising race between Jean Charest ($490,000) and Pierre Poilievre ($545,000) in the first quarter of 2022.
Following the release of the most recent fundraising data, a campaign official for Jean Charest indicated that fundraisers held in July and not yet reflected in public statements would have raised approximately another million dollars. . The duty could not independently verify this information.
Data for the second quarter of 2022, also the one that encapsulates most of the leadership contest, is released by Elections Canada as the Conservative Party prepares to hold its third and final official debate of the race.
This will take place on Wednesday evening, in a bilingual format: first in English, from 6 p.m.; then in French, at 6:45 p.m. This debate will take place in the absence of two of the five candidates still in the running: Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis have announced that they prefer to pay the $50,000 fine imposed by their party.
The various Conservative candidates had until June 3 to find new members ready to support them as party leaders. The party has nearly 679,000 members who will be able to choose the next leader, according to one of its Facebook posts from last week.
Members must send in their ballot before September 6th. About 80,000 members had already sent in their bulletins as of Friday.
The votes will then be tallied using a complex formula that allows for multiple rounds of voting and takes into account the second (or higher) choices of supporters of an eliminated candidate. A points system grants unequal weight between members, depending on the constituency where they reside.
Since each riding has a maximum weight of 100 points, this system theoretically offers more weight to the regions where the Conservative Party has the fewest members, many of whom are located in Quebec.
The identity of the new Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons will be known on September 10.