Pundits' Guide: Record NDP Campaign Spending in 2008 Still Fell Short of Limit

The NDP's campaign return has now been posted at the Elections Canada website, and shows national campaign spending of 83.8% of their party election expense limit -- higher than the party has ever spent in a general election, but still some 16 percentage points short of their previous commitment to spend the national limit.

The NDP spent more than the Liberals on Broadcast advertising, and a remarkable $4 million dollars on Jack Layton's Leader's Tour, up from $3.6 million in 2006 and more than even the Conservatives spent for the Prime Minister's campaign travel plans. The NDP reportedly planned to purchase the most expensive carbon offsets (their 2006 tour required some $60,000 worth), but the amount of those offsets like other details of any party's campaign spending is not contained in their election campaign returns, so we have no way of knowing how much of the increase they accounted for. The party also spent a sizable chunk of its election budget on opinion research, consistent with its previous campaign budgets.

I also need to make a big Mea Culpa here, because I've just realized that in my rush to complete the previous post, I accidentally transposed a few numbers in my reporting of the categories of spending by the Liberal party. I previously wrote:

Liberal spending on both Broadcast Advertising and Polling in 2008 represents a substantial decline from 2006, although National Office costs increased. Salaries declined in favour of Professional Services, a similar trend to that already noted for the Conservatives.

... which should be revised as follows ...

Liberal spending on both Broadcast Advertising and Polling in 2008 represents a substantial decline from 2006, although Other Advertising expenditures increased. Salaries declined in favour of Professional Services, a similar trend to that already noted for the Conservatives.

I apologize for any inconvenience this error may have caused, and have written separately to alert several bloggers who wrote about these figures (Steve V at Far and Wide, the Jurist at Accidental Deliberations (twice), and Mark Taylor at Report on Greens).

Note that the other parties return comparisons are also reproduced below (and corrected, where necessary) from two earlier posts.

National Campaign Expenditures by Party and Category, 2008 General Election

CATEGORY	Lib ($)	NDP ($)	Grn ($)	BQ ($)	Cons ($)
Ads - Rad/TV	5,827,650	7,071,205	1,579,104	2,377,418	10,266,344
Ads - Oth	2,213,049	1,373,790	248,091	402,646	327,685
Leader's tour	2,481,430	4,043,031	83,960	578,906	2,474,333
Polls	828,447	1,303,098	88,247	168,136	274,240
Salaries	1,181,479	1,701,003	115,404	501,745	866,261
Prof Services	351,104	52,537	409,405	79,188	1,785,037
Travel	439,143	377,810	74,030	371,349	57,820
Natl Office	650,007	624,115	194,488	20,709	449,423
Other Off	559,544	267,301	3,070	379,507	2,917,437

TOTAL (%)	14,531,853 (72.6%)	16,813,890 (83.8%)	2,795,800 (14.2%)	4,879,604 (96.3%)	19,418,580 (97.1%)
LIMIT	20,014,303	20,063,430	19,751,413	5,066,811	19,999,231

National Campaign Expenditures by Election and Category, Liberal Party

CATEGORY	1997 GE($)	2000 GE($)	2004 GE($)	2006 GE($)	2008 GE($)
Broadcasting	970699	662450
Television	2838083	3508420
Ads - Rad/TV			7578406	8126305	5827650
Ads - Oth	2959048	3522138	2589017	1332572	2213049
Leader's tour	1697242	2283346	2836782	3387399	2481430
Polls			641515	1057992	828447
Salaries	573160	799542	1076300	1709670	1181479
Prof Services	143974	197021	252967	138261	351104
Travel	453586	429913	468934	364856	439143
Natl Office	547897	382620	313532	645978	650007
Rent, etc	78446	57227
Admin	698278	426455
Fund-raising	284597	253466
Misc	2131	2576
Other Off			847075	684097	559544

National Campaign Expenditures by Election and Category, NDP

CATEGORY	1997 GE($)	2000 GE($)	2004 GE($)	2006 GE($)	2008 GE($)
Broadcasting	44103	288344
Television	1965750	1268563
Ads - Rad/TV			4388233	4816375	7071205
Ads - Oth	33001	385705	1044464	1085300	1373790
Leader's tour	1056638	1612521	2453019	3605420	4043031
Polls			1361146	1226071	1303098
Salaries	924190	907744	1259572	1287474	1701003
Prof Services	15102	67245	19702	51537	52537
Travel	143580	206202	307743	264912	377809
Natl Office	679465	451003	974407	1040412	624115
Rent, etc	52238	81816
Admin	879585	931559
Fund-raising	183072	133883
Misc	0	0
Other Off			210646	148025	267301

National Campaign Expenditures by Election and Category, Green Party

CATEGORY	1997 GE ($)	2000 GE ($)	2004 GE ($)	2006 GE ($)	2008 GE ($)
Broadcasting	0	0
Television	0	0
Ads - Rad/TV			25,568	6,485	1,579,104
Ads - Oth	0	497	150,366	133,604	248,091
Leader's tour	0	0	11,873	96,450	83,960
Polls			30,228	1,498	88,247
Salaries	0	1,280	217,374	438,102	115,404
Prof Services	0	944	20,276	77,577	409,405
Travel	0	947	9,414	16,779	74,030
Natl Office	0	0	33,081	116,229	194,488
Rent, etc	0	0
Admin	0	12,997
Fund-raising	0	0
Misc	0	1,082
Other Off			0	24,255	3,070

TOTAL (%)	0 (0.0%)	17,747 (0.4%)	498,179 (2.8%)	910,979 (4.9%)	2,795,800 (14.2%)
LIMIT	3,154,376	4,888,177	17,593,925	18,278,279	19,751,413

National Campaign Expenditures by Election and Category, Bloc Québécois

CATEGORY	1997 GE ($)	2000 GE ($)	2004 GE ($)	2006 GE ($)	2008 GE ($)
Broadcasting	8,430	0
Television	10,650	4,049
Ads - Rad/TV			1,443,407	1,434,561	2,377418
Ads - Oth	375,472	451,218	977,687	844,669	402,646
Leader's tour	109,572	375,999	389,041	577,432	578,906
Polls			56,761	57,512	168,136
Salaries	478,805	522,512	678,143	558,132	501,745
Prof Services	147,207	62,609	274,539	145,365	79,188
Travel	47,042	81,533	108,603	113,643	371,349
Natl Office	237,042	255,095	81,997	80,934	20,709
Rent, etc	7,671	14,466
Admin	75,572	76,787
Fund-raising	132,034	124,425
Misc	0	0
Other Off			497,353	715,382	379,507

TOTAL (%)	1,629,497 (54.0%)	1,968,692 (58.2%%)	4,511,087 (98.2%)	4,527,630 (96.8%)	4,879,604 (96.3%)
LIMIT	3,019,087	3,383,175	4,591,748	4,676,677	5,066,811

National Campaign Expenditures by Election and Category, Conservative Party (incl. Reform Party and Canadian Alliance pre-2004)

3 Comments:

catherine said...: Do the details come out later, or is this all the information that will be public?

I suspect the large cost of the NDP leader's tour was the bidding war for the AC plane. Recall, the Liberals lost that competition. The CPC presumably got a better deal because they secured a plane before the bidding war.; April 15, 2009 6:06 AM
Ed said...: Didn't Layton go to the Artic at some point? It nabbed them a seat but was probably very expensive.; April 15, 2009 8:11 AM
The Pundits' Guide said...: Hi catherine. Yes, that's all we get, except for what the parties decide to include in their annual financial statements, which are due the end of June.

And, you're quite right about the bidding for the Air Canada lease, which I had totally forgotten about, so thanks for the reminder on that.

Ed, all three party leaders went to Nunavut during the campaign actually (Layton, Dion and Harper), as all three parties believed they had a fighting chance there. In the end, just 7.3% of the vote separated first and third place, but the Conservatives won that one.

The NDP does hold Western Arctic next door, and stopped there on the first big leg of Layton's tour, after flying over the oil sands. I suspect those two trips, plus the fact that many of their target seats were at opposite ends of the country, did contribute to the cost.; April 15, 2009 11:37 AM