Harper’s Conservatives hauled in big bucks before (and after) election

OTTAWA – The Conservatives lost votes, seats and power in last week’s federal election, but they’ve retained — at least for now — the title of fundraising champion.

The party says it raised just over $10 million from July 1 to Sept. 30 — the largest quarterly haul ever for any federal party.

The Conservatives beat the previous quarterly record — $8.2 million raised by the Tories during the 2011 election campaign — by a whopping 23 per cent.

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The Liberals, who won the Oct. 19 vote, have yet to reveal how much money they raked in.

During the campaign, New Democrats boasted that they’d set a new record, raising just over $9 million in the third quarter.

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However, the Conservatives have now surpassed the NDP take by more than $1 million.

The NDP did have more donors, however, pulling in contributions from 64,145 individuals compared to 63,177 who gave money to the Conservatives.

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“Obviously, it shows we’re still in very good shape,” Conservative party spokesman Cory Hann said.

While the party faced “a monumental historical challenge” in trying to win a fourth consecutive mandate, Hann said the fundraising numbers “show that Canadians were motivated to see that Conservatives continue to keep taxes low, our country’s finances in check and look out for everyday working Canadians and their families — and that’s exactly what we’ll do in the next Parliament.”