Donations from affluent urban ridings grease the wheels of politics, new analysis suggests

Wealthy urban ridings, especially those represented by higher-profile politicians, offered the most lucrative fundraising terrain for Canada’s federal political parties in the five years following the 2015 election, suggests a new analysis of Elections Canada political donations data.

The ridings, which include many of the country’s richest neighbourhoods, in most cases also had voter turnouts higher than the national participation rate in the 2019 election, according to the analysis by the Local News Data Hub at Toronto Metropolitan University and the Investigative Journalism Foundation, a non-profit journalism startup tracking political donations and lobbyist activity in partnership with scholars from Canadian universities.

Nationally, Ottawa Centre led the country in political contributions greater than $200 to federal political parties, electoral district associations and 2019 election candidates. The riding, which includes Parliament Hill and is home to many public servants, lobbyists and others with a stake in public policy, generated $5.9 million in donations. This compares with an average of $853,000 for all of the country’s 338 ridings.

Geoff Turner, chair of the Ottawa Centre Federal Liberal Association, said residents in the riding tend to work and volunteer in the public sphere.

“There’s just a higher level of [political] activity,” he said. “There’s a higher proportion of people who spend their professional and personal lives focused on public policy.” 

The analysis, which mostly focused on the 17 ridings in the 95th percentile, meaning that total donations were greater than in 95 per cent of all ridings, found a clear relationship between median income and total donations.

The Toronto riding of University–Rosedale, which encompasses the wealthy enclave of Rosedale-Moore Park, ranked second, with donors contributing $5.4 million to federal parties in the years following the Liberals’s sweeping 2015 election victory through the end of 2020. Toronto–St. Paul’s, where the parties pulled in $4.1 million, was in third place. It includes part of Toronto’s tony Forest Hill neighbourhood.

Vancouver Granville, with its Shaughnessy neighbourhood, also made the list, along with Vancouver Quadra, which contains part of affluent Kerrisdale, and Winnipeg South Centre, a riding that includes most of the wealthy Tuxedo neighbourhood.

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People who are well-off are also more likely to want to vote, said Erin Crandall, an associate professor of politics at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, noting that research has consistently linked voter turnout with affluence. “They feel like they’re a part of the democratic system and party system.”

Of the top 17 ridings, 13 had voter turnouts higher than the 67 per cent participation rate for the country as a whole.

Erin Tolley, an associate professor of political science at Carleton University, said that compared with the United States, where “wealthy donors can really have considerable influence over political direction,” Canada’s political fundraising landscape is more focused on frequent, small donations.

Political financing experts and experienced fundraisers said federal laws limit donors’ influence on elected officials, with Elections Canada auditing party fundraising records and requiring parties to publish donor information for contributions greater than $200. Donations are currently limited to a maximum of $1,675 to each registered political party per year, an additional $1,675 spread among contestants in a party leadership race, and another $1,675 per party spread among local electoral district associations, candidates running for office and nomination contestants in a riding.

What political donations can buy donors is access.

“You might get a phone call returned faster. You might get invited to the exclusive little meet and greet … at some large donor’s house [or a] backyard barbecue,” said former Ontario finance minister Janet Ecker, who fundraised in her suburban riding just east of Toronto and has helped other Conservative candidates raise money. “But just because somebody’s got the ability to meet with you, or talk to you, doesn’t mean you’re doing what they want you to do.

“[A donation] might get you in the door, but it won’t guarantee you an outcome,” Ecker said, adding that as a legislator, she met with many people who never donated to her campaign or her party.

The involvement of well-known politicians also drives donations, Ecker said. Seven out of the 17 MPs elected in the top ridings entered the 2019 election as cabinet ministers, including Ottawa Centre’s Catherine McKenna, who was environment minister; Jim Carr from Winnipeg South Centre, the then-minister of international trade diversification; and former transport minister Marc Garneau, from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount in Montreal.

People donate because their values align with those of a party, said Michael Roy, a former national digital director for the NDP’s 2015 campaign. They believe their money will “help move those values forward,” he said.

Nationwide, counting donations of all amounts, the Conservative Party of Canada raised the most money over the five years. The federal party, Tory candidates and riding associations pulled in nearly $179 million, while the Liberals amassed $142 million. The NDP raised $52 million, the Green Party raised $24 million and the Bloc Québécois collected $7 million.

A closer look at data for the top ridings, which focused on donations greater than $200 because donors’ home ridings could be identified, showed that:

• The federal Liberals raised the most money in 10 of the 17 ridings, while the Conservatives led in six. The Green Party raised the most in Saanich–Gulf Islands, home of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. 
• Top-ranked Ottawa Centre had the highest number of donors, with 4,812 people, or 475 out of every 10,000 registered voters, reaching into their pockets to support political parties. Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount riding had the fewest donors of the 17 ridings, with 1,703 people contributing, or 222 donors per 10,000 registered voters.
• Three of the 17 ridings are home to provincial legislatures, including Queen’s Park in University–Rosedale, the B.C. legislature in Victoria and the Alberta legislature in Edmonton Centre.
• Fifteen ridings had higher-than-average median incomes, according to 2016 census data.

Top ridings for federal party fundraising (Oct. 20, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020)

1. Ottawa Centre: $5.9 million
2. University–Rosedale: $5.4 million
3. Toronto–St. Paul’s: $4.1 million
4. Calgary Centre: $4 million
5. Don Valley West: $3.4 million
6. Vancouver Quadra: $3.3 million
7. Ottawa–Vanier: $3.1 million
8. Vancouver Centre: $2.7 million
9. West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country: $2.6 million
10. Victoria: $2.6 million
11. Saanich–Gulf Islands: $2.5 million
12. Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount: $2.3 million
13. Winnipeg South Centre: $2.3 million
14. Vancouver Granville: $2.3 million
15. Eglinton–Lawrence: $2.3 million
16. Oakville: $2.2 million
17. Edmonton Centre: $2.1 million

This story was produced by the Local News Data Hub, a project of the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan (formerly Ryerson) University’s School of Journalism, and the Investigative Journalism Foundation, a non-profit journalism startup tracking political donations and lobbyist activity in partnership with university researchers. The Canadian Press is the Data Hub’s operational partner. Detailed information on the data and methodology can be found here.