The Self-Funders

In Canada, the maximum allowable political donation is $5,000.

During the 2019 federal election, 60 candidates were self-confident enough to donate that full amount to themselves.

This is their story.

Liberal Party

From wealthy cabinet ministers assured of re-election, to no-hopers in deeply hostile ridings, 26 Liberal candidates donated the maximum amount to their own campaigns.

Bill MORNEAU (Toronto Centre)

Morneau is known to be independently wealthy, but this was a bad investment – he wouldn’t last another year as MP. As Minister of Finance and… prominent WE Charity donor… he resigned his seat over the WE Charity scandal.

Marc GARNEAU (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount)

Garneau, a big Liberal name and Minister of Transport at the time of this election, must have earned a healthy salary in his last job as President of the Canadian Space Agency. His self-donation was probably not the decisive factor in his 41-point re-election.

Patty HAJDU (Thunder Bay—Superior North)

The third Liberal cabinet minister to make a $5,000 self-donation, Hajdu was in charge of the Labour portfolio at the time of this election. You’d be forgiven if that slipped your mind: she was shuffled to Health a month later, and was responsible for invoking the Quarantine Act in March 2020.

Diane LEBOUTHILLIER (Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine)

Lebouthillier is one of Trudeau’s original cabinet picks, having served as Minister of National Revenue since 2015. And what are cabinet postings for, if not giving a slight electoral advantage to vulnerable incumbents in weird parts of the country?

Julie DZEROWICZ (Davenport)

Dzerowicz, who narrowly unseated an NDP incumbent in 2015, was probably wise to invest heavily in her own re-election. In her past job, she was a Bank of Montreal director.

Raj SAINI (Kitchener Centre)

Another Southern Ontario backbencher, Saini faced a spirited challenge from Green candidate Mike Morrice, who improved from 3% of the vote to 26%. But, aided by savings from his previous career as a pharmacist, Saini kept his seat.

Ramesh SANGHA (Brampton Centre)

Yet another GTA backbencher with a professional background, Sangha was a practicing lawyer before taking Brampton Centre in 2015. When I started this article four days ago, I thought there would be nothing else to say about him, but he has since been expelled from the Liberal caucus for accusing two Sikh Liberal MPs of holding “extremist ideas” in a blistering Punjabi-language interview.

Leah TAYLOR ROY (Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill)

The Liberals won this distant Toronto suburb in 2015, but incumbent Alleslev crossed the floor to the Conservatives. Competitive two cycles in a row, this was a fairly sensible target for a $5,000 cash investment.

John ALDAG (Cloverdale—Langley City)

Incumbent John Aldag went down after one term representing Vancouver’s outskirts. Before entering politics, he was Administrator of Fort Langley National Historic Site.

Doug EYOLFSON (Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley)

Another riding in the outer suburbs, another defeated Liberal incumbent. This western Winnipeg constituency was the only race in the country where two candidates paid $5,000 into their own campaigns.

Tammy COOK-SEARSON (Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River)

As Chief of the sprawling Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Cook-Searson was a great candidate, one of the only Liberals in the country to improve on 2015. Her boost against the NDP incumbent almost certainly threw this remote Northern Saskatchewan riding to the Conservative, a white guy hailing from its southermost extremity.

Every other Liberal candidate on this list – and there are a lot – lost handily. Find them at the very bottom of this page.

Conservative Party

Wouldn’t you expect the Conservatives to have more disposable income than the other parties? Maybe they’re demonstrating good business sense. Only 9 candidates spent $5,000 on their own campaigns in 2019.

Scott REID (Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston)

Reid has been in Parliament since 2000, when he managed to get elected as one of two Alliance members for Ontario. Source of wealth: his father founded Giant Tiger.

Marty MORANTZ (Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley)

Source of wealth: Lawyer and Winnipeg City Councillor. Despite incumbent Liberal Eyolfson also pumping $5,000 into this race, the fundamentals were with challenger Morantz.

Cyma MUSARAT (Pickering—Uxbridge)

Source of wealth: Real estate developer. That sounds like a good fit for this sprawling GTA riding, but Musarat’s candidacy may have been damaged by a controversy over her nomination. Claiming she distributed fraudulent Conservative memberships to out-of-town voters, the constituency association president resigned his post.

Eli TANNIS (Ottawa South)

Source of wealth: Businessman and philanthropist. In a move that would be absolutely unthinkable for a Conservative candidate anywhere else in the country, he penned a 2019 opinion column titled “It’s time to respect and support Ottawa’s public servants”.

Joyce BATEMAN (Winnipeg South Centre)

Source of wealth: Chartered professional accountant. Bateman represented this riding from 2011 to 2015, but even in 2019 it remained out of reach for Conservatives.

Sylvie BOUCHER (Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix)

Source of wealth: Assistant Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Tourism. Boucher is no stranger to Quebec’s volatile politics, having represented the eastern outskirts of Quebec City since 2006. Briefly unseated during the NDP wave of 2011, she was once again wiped out in 2019, this time by the Bloc.

Ashish SACHAN (Guelph)

Source of wealth: Chief science officer. This could have been the year for Conservatives in Guelph, as the Green Party was expected to put up a strong challenge against the incumbent Liberal. Instead, Green candidate Dyck drew support from both main parties, putting Sachan under 20%.

Carol CLEMENHAGEN (Ottawa Centre)

Source of wealth: Healthcare executive. Ottawa Centre is a good place for a Conservative to be self-funded. Running as a social moderate, Clemenhagen at least got her deposit back, with 12.6% of the vote.

Adam PHAM (Parkdale—High Park)

Source of wealth: Real estate broker. Pham was not successful at breaking through in Toronto’s whitest riding. He is currently seeking the Conservative nomination in friendlier King-Vaughan, where his campaign website states he has “maintained a home for almost 15 years on a beautiful farm in King Township”. Must be a second home, because his 2019 candidate papers say he’s a Toronto resident.

New Democratic Party

Canada’s social democratic party nonetheless recruited 9 candidates with $5,000 cash on hand, the same number as the Conservatives.

Gord JOHNS (Courtenay—Alberni)

 In a departure from leftist tradition, Johns was a serial entrepreneur before taking office in 2015. His environmentally conscious ventures may have headed off a Green challenge in this Vancouver Island riding.

Barrington WALKER (Kingston and the Islands)

Source of wealth: Wilfrid Laurier University professor. In a mediocre cycle for the NDP, Walker gained 6 points and became the first New Democrat to take second place in this Liberal stronghold.

Saranjit SINGH (Brampton East)

Source of wealth: Lawyer. All 5 seats in swingy Brampton went Conservative to Liberal in 2015, but the 2019 campaign saw the Liberals keep them all.

Dirka PROUT (London North Centre)

Source of wealth: Senior geotechnical engineer. Similarly to Walker – both Black Canadians running in university ridings – she improved 9 points on the party’s 2015 showing.

Steven SCOTT (LaSalle—Émard—Verdun)

Source of wealth: Concordia University professor.

Anne WILSON (Banff—Airdrie)

Source of wealth: Lawyer. Lots of room for growth in this exurban Alberta riding.

Mandeep KAUR (Brampton South)

Source of wealth: Mortgage specialist. Multiple Brampton NDP candidates were inspired to self-invest $5,000, probably expecting local son Jagmeet Singh to break through in this plurality-Indian suburb.

Gurinder Singh GILL (Calgary Skyview)

Source of wealth: Accountant. This diverse area of Calgary has been friendly to the provincial NDP, but a breakthrough for the federal party was not forthcoming.

Ève PÉCLET (La Pointe-de-l’Île)

Source of wealth: Lawyer. Péclet was previously MP from 2011 to 2015, choosing to stay on as a candidate in 2019.

People’s Party

While nobody from the upstart People’s Party actually won, its far-right platform generated a lot of fundraising enthusiasm, not least from these eight working candidates.

Wendy MARTIN (Oxford)

Source of wealth: Office manager.

Rob BOGUNOVIC (Chilliwack—Hope)

Source of wealth: …high school teacher? Donating $5,000 on a teacher’s salary is truly impressive.

Greg HESSION (Foothills)

Source of wealth: Owns solar panel company. Interestingly, Hession has also stated that “carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas is an absolute hoax”.

Tom IKERT (Bow River)

Source of wealth: Owns construction company.

Renaud ROY (Timmins—James Bay)

Source of wealth: Founder of Romanian NGO, now resident in Iroquois Falls. Candidate papers state occupation as “Service Person”.

Robert Douglas BEBB (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country)

Source of wealth: Engineer.

Duncan LOCKE (Abbotsford)

Source of wealth: Electrician.

Gilbert Joseph JUBINVILLE (Oakville North—Burlington)

Source of wealth: Engineering technician. Currently on Twitter under the name “Name can not be blank” [sic].

Green Party

With not a lot of Canadians changing their minds in 2019, the fourth national party gained the most in the popular vote. Perhaps this was fueled in part by the hefty investments made by these five candidates.

Marty LANCASTER (Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte)

Source of wealth: Another high school teacher! That’s still a white-collar position, I guess, just one of the least lucrative ones in this article.

Paul SLAVCHENKO (Whitby)

Source of wealth: Anaesthesiologist.

Sandra O’CONNOR (Niagara Falls)

Source of wealth: Retired Natural Resources Canada employee.

Pierre CARRIER (Beloeil—Chambly)

Source of wealth: Caterer (retired). The Greens certainly attract an interesting slate.

Michael KALMANOVITCH (Edmonton Strathcona)

Owner of Earth’s General Store and a well-known Climate Strike protestor, Kalmanovitch seemed like the ideal Green candidate. But, unlike many other political outsiders, he couldn’t stand the idea of being a spoiler in Alberta’s only competitive riding. In an epic last-minute choke, he bucked the party to withdraw his candidacy – too late to be removed from the ballot.

Independents

With no party apparatus to rely on, independent campaigns have no choice but to fundraise strongly. Jody Wilson-Raybould, who successfully returned to Parliament after being ejected from the Liberal Party, earned the most small donations of any national campaign.

These three confident candidates were not so lucky.

Hassan GUILLET (Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel)

Source of wealth: Engineer and imam. Guillet was belatedly stripped of the Liberal nomination after old anti-Israel Facebook posts were discovered. This took three months, so he was probably already picking out a house in Ottawa.

Birinder Singh AHLUWALIA (Willowdale)

Unlike most other independents, Ahluwalia leaves his campaign website online between elections. As a self-made radiology company owner, he can probably afford it.

Jean PARADIS (Mégantic—L’Érable)

For some reason, Paradis ran as an independent after being denied the BQ nomination. The Bloc came a distant second to the Conservative incumbent, while Paradis placed eighth.

Christian Heritage Party

The far-right Christian Heritage Party is the largest of Canada’s truly minor parties, having never won more than 1% of the nationwide popular vote. Its most reliable recruits are Dutch Canadian clergymen, although the party’s Christian nationalist vision is relatively tolerant of ethnic diversity. In the political tradition of the Netherlands, it would be called a “testimonial party”, deliberately eschewing success in order to maintain a strict and uncompromising agenda.

Garry DIRK (Calgary Signal Hill)

In 2019, just one CHP candidate chose to accumulate treasure in heaven, spending $5,000 of his own money on a campaign that would ultimately earn 200 votes and come in 7th place.

Liberal Party (continued)

Finally, here are all the Liberals who spent $5,000 on completely doomed campaigns. Why are there so many? While lots of Conservative candidates own things, the Liberal Party seems to attract professionals.

Allan THOMPSON (Huron—Bruce)

This sprawling Eastern Ontario riding was nearly a Liberal pickup in 2015, but the gap widened in 2019. Source of wealth: Professor and former Toronto Star journalist.

Ian BINGHAM (Niagara West)

Source of wealth: Lawyer and retired lieutenant. Bingham has been recently renominated, so we will see if he improves over his 2019 showing.

Leon JENSEN (Langley—Aldergrove)

Source of wealth: President of the Royal Canadian Artillery Association. Jensen nearly took out a Harper cabinet minister in 2015, but 2019 was a bad year to be a Liberal in far suburban Vancouver.

Sara BADIEI (Port Moody—Coquitlam)

OK, this one was actually quite close, but it was ultimately the Conservatives who took this 2015 NDP hold. Source of wealth: BC Hydro engineer.

Pirie MITCHELL (Perth—Wellington)

Source of wealth: Semi-retired United Church minister. Step aside, teachers: this has got to be the single least lucrative profession on this list. Will the Kingdom of Heaven write off campaign expenses?

Geneviève HINSE (Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie)

2019 was a miserable year for Quebec NDP supporters, as the party’s 2011 sweep was completely undone – with one single exception, this downtown Montreal riding. While pundits claimed that Jagmeet Singh’s brownness cost him rural Quebec, this cosmopolitan piece of the island held out, having much more in common with the NDP’s other highly-educated strongholds across the country. Bad news for the Liberal candidate, who was undoubtedly hoping for a complete party collapse.

Tariq CHAUDARY (Edmonton Riverbend)

Source of wealth: IT professional (retired). Like many progressive Albertans, his Twitter account has been happily repurposed towards memeing against the UCP provincial government.

Annie TALBOT (Portneuf—Jacques Cartier)

Source of wealth: Former CEO, Fondation du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. If you are unfamiliar with Quebec, yes, there are Quebec-only public institutions that call themselves “national”. Talbot ran in one of the province’s most conservative ridings, previously held by flamboyant independent André Arthur.

Steven KOU (Richmond Centre)

Source of wealth: Accountant and UBC doctor of laws. Surrounding Vancouver’s airport, Richmond is North America’s only majority-Chinese city. The constituency association may not have been able to find a local candidate, as Kou resides in nearby Surrey.

Marc PATRY (Richmond—Arthabaska)

Source of wealth: Entrepreneur, businessman, and engineer, an impressive resume which had little impact on this conservative rural Quebec riding.

Jag ANAND (Calgary Forest Lawn)

Source of wealth: Ophthalmologist. There were a few close races in 2015, but the 2019 Conservatives stomped home in every Calgary riding.

Habiba MOHAMUD (Edmonton Griesbach)

Source of wealth: Professor of sociology, Grant MacEwan University.

Dave SAVARD (Manicouagan)

Source of wealth: University instructor. Remember when this was Brian Mulroney’s riding? Quebec’s remote Northern Shore has preferred the Bloc since 1993.

Leslie PENNY (Peace River—Westlock)

Source of wealth: Municipal councillor, Town of Barrhead.

We close the article with the most blisteringly cruel result for any major-party self-donor.

As events south of the border cause Canadians to fret about the health of our own democracy, take heart: even $5,000 can only go so far.