Cost of 2015 election soars, partly due to marathon 78-day campaign
Posted February 5, 2016 11:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Elections Canada says last fall’s marathon federal election campaign cost $443 million to administer — 53 per cent more than the 2011 election. And that’s just the preliminary estimate.
The independent agency doesn’t yet know how many millions it will have to pay out to political parties and their candidates, who are eligible for rebates of up to 50 per cent and 60 per cent respectively on their campaign expenses.
Elections Canada estimates that rebates topped $60 million after the 2011 election — a figure that’s bound to be higher for the 2015 vote since the unusually long campaign meant spending limits for parties and candidates were effectively doubled.
The preliminary cost estimate is contained in an Elections Canada report on the Oct. 19 election, tabled today in Parliament.
It attributes the increased cost to a variety of factors, including the addition of 30 new ridings and the fact that the 78-day campaign was the longest in more than 140 years.
