The candidate financial reports for the 2000 General Election have now been imported. Since all the 2000 reports have been reviewed by Elections Canada (and therefore none remain "As submitted by the candidate"), you'll notice that none appear in italics. And in addition, since the entire reports could be downloaded in a single flat file from Elections Canada, I was able to obtain the necessary details in order to link to the exact webpage for each candidate's return at the Elections Canada website (see the small Elections Canada icon next to the candidate's name).

For example, in the older version of LaSalle – Émard, QC, click on the "Financial Metrics" tab (or click here), and notice the small icon to the left of each candidate, like this ( ) . Clicking on the one to the left of Paul Martin's name brings us to the candidate details section of his 2000 Election Return.

Note that the rules and reporting categories changed substantially between 2000 and 2004. In most cases in 2000, direct transfers from registered parties were recorded as contributions from Corporations without share capital (group 'E'), and were lumped together with any individual, corporate or trade union contributions collected by the party office on behalf of the local candidate and transferred over to the candidate's campaign. Similarly direct transfers from "electoral district associations" (riding associations) were recorded as contributions from Unincorporated organizations and associations (group 'F'), and were also lumped together with any individual, corporate and trade union contributions collected by the riding or provincial section or other party trust fund on the candidate's behalf, before being transferred to the candidate. However, group 'F' contributions also included those made by non-political associations in 2000. I also noticed some individual contributions that were perhaps misclassified between groups 'E' and 'F'.

Since I had already been following the practice here of summing transfers from riding associations with contributions collected during the campaign period and calling it "Raised Locally", the caveats above should not have too much impact on the comparability of 2000 and 2004 metrics. But due to an occasional misclassification, something that looks like a central party transfer could wind up being counted as something "raised locally". Plus, due to the inclusion of contribution amounts in group 'E', the group 'E' total will sometimes overstate the extent of central campaign support of the local campaign. I just left the data the way Elections Canada reports it, but may try to break things down further sometime in the future.

This addition of data leaves just 1997 returns plus those from a few by-elections waiting to be entered. Candidate return data for the 2008 election will likely not be ready for some time, however.

As time permits, I'll be reviewing and updating any candidate returns from 2004 and 2006 which have moved from the "As submitted" stage to the "As reviewed" state, and adding the connecting details to allow for a direct link to candidate returns for those elections as well. Once all the candidate financial data is in, some new analyses will become possible as well.

Labels: 37th (2000) General Election, Election Expenses, Election Finance