All things Canadian.....

Interesting article here at The Hill Times - via Bourque.

The Conservatives raised $2.6-million in the first three months of 2005, and out-fundraised the governing Liberals which brought in $2.2-million during the same period, according to the first-ever set of quarterly financial reports disclosed by Elections Canada...
....
Based on the 2004 June election results, the Liberals will get an allowance of $8.8-million this year, while the Conservatives will get $7.2-million. The NDP will get $3.8-million, and the Bloc just over $3-million. When factoring its $8.8-million allowance and the $2.2-million already raised through individual contributions, the Liberal Party will be able to bank on at least $11-million in 2005. This is not counting whatever the party raises from April to December.
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Duff Conacher, coordinator of Ottawa-based Democracy Watch, said the $5,000 individual limit is too high and therefore "undemocratic" because the average Canadian can't afford it. He said the limit encourages the kind of abuses seen in the sponsorship scandal where ad executives testified they got their employees to donate to the Liberal Party. Mr. Conacher said the limit should be lowered to $1,000. In an analysis of the party contributions made from January to March, Mr. Conacher found that the Liberals have many more donors who gave over $1,000 than all other parties combined. He also found that the average donation to the Liberals ($314.84) was 3.4 times larger than the other parties.
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The first quarter disclosure statements on the Elections Canada website also show the NDP raised nearly $560,000 while the Bloc brought in $126,000.

So, the Liberals had around 7,000 donors. (2,200,000/314.84) The Conservatives had around 28,000 donors. (2,600,000/(314.84/3.4))

Pretty impressive.

And to think, this doesn't even include the money we raised during the Blogging Tories Challenge!