Pierre Poilievre Raises More Money Than All His Opponents in Conservative Leadership Race

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre takes part in the Conservative Party of Canada French-language leadership debate in Laval, Quebec, on May 25, 2022. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

Pierre Poilievre has raised more money in the second quarter of this year than all his opponents in the Conservative leadership race combined, according to data from Elections Canada.

Poilievre raised $4,042,717, which is nearly three times that of Jean Charest, who raised $1,376,492 in the second quarter, said the data released on Aug. 2.

Leslyn Lewis was third-highest with $709,061, followed by the $541,707 raised by Patrick Brown, mayor of Brampton, Ontario, who is now disqualified from the leadership race.

Roman Baber, a former Progressive Conservative member of the Ontario legislature, raised $504,650, and Ontario MP Scott Aitchison raised $363,922.

The numbers of individual donors further reflect the amount of support each candidate has garnered.

Poilievre received donations from 36,804 individuals, followed by Lewis with 5,523, Charest with 4,191, Barber with 4,171, Brown with 1,358, and Aitchison with 1,081.

“To me this is the most important data of all this Q2 fundraising information. This is always what means the most to political strategists and organizers. You want lots of donors with small donations,” said Yan Plante, a former Conservative strategist and vice president of the Quebec-based consulting firm TACT.

“It shows that there is a real movement that’s coming. The bulldozer is coming for the leadership and it might also be coming for the next election,” Plante said in a separate tweet, echoing the views of Conservative strategist Tim Powers, chair of Summa Strategies and managing director of Abacus Data.

“If you’re an opponent of the Conservatives, you’ve got to be looking at how people in these tough fiscal times are opening their wallets for the Conservative party,” Powers told the Toronto Star.

“Right now, Canadians seem to be very dissatisfied with the current government … There’s an anger and Conservatives seem to be the beneficiary of that anger.”

The Elections Canada data shows that the Conservatives raked in more than $4.4 million from about 36,000 donors in April, May, and June.

During that time frame, the Liberals raised over $2.7 million from almost 28,000 donors and the NDP received almost $1.2 million from close to 16,000 people. The Green Party raised almost $438,000 from nearly 5,200 Canadians. The Bloc Québécois raised about $248,000 from more than 1,600 people, while the People’s Party of Canada raised just under $200,000 from about 4,000 donors.