Conservative fundraising runs into roadblock in Quebec

The prime minister's Quebec lieutenant, Denis Lebel, has spent the past couple weeks crisscrossinghishome provinceon what the party is billing as his "End of Summer Tour" a12-daytrek that has taken him from Charlevoix to Mount Royal to Saguenay and finally to a rally in Quebec City on Friday.

• Tories embark on late-summer campaign to woo Quebec voters

Lebel, who is also the federal infrastructure minister, says in a statement postedto the summer tour's official website that his goal is "reach out" to both card-carrying Conservative supporters and Quebecers at large "in order to listen to them."

"Evidently," he adds, "we also want our message to be heard."

Ifhe really wants to dig deep into the details of his party's often fractious relationship with La Belle Province, though, he may want todive into the datacontained in thelatest batch of financial reports filed by Quebec Conservative riding associations.

Conservative riding associations

According to the most recent returns,30 of the 75 Conservative riding associations in Quebecreported nodonation revenueat all in 2013.

Anadditional20associations pulledin less than $1,000 total throughout the year.

That numberincludes Lebel's own riding associationof RobervalLac-Saint-Jean, which netted just $650 from three contributors.

In Pontiac the riding held by former Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon from 2006 until 2011, when he was ousted by New Democrat rookie Mathieu Ravignat contributions to the Conservative riding associationsomehow managed to work out to $5,301.03.

(How, precisely, a riding association can fundraise a negative number of dollars is a mystery, as they don't appear to have refunded any contributions, which would normally account for such a result.)

Despite those somewhat sobering numbers, Lebel can take some comfort in his party's fundraising prowess in Montreal's Mount Royal, where the looming retirement of longtime Liberal MP Irwin Cotler in 2015 has emboldened Tory hopes of snagging their first seat in metropolitan Montreal.

Not surprising, it was also one of the stops on the minister's summer-ending tour.

Mount Royal Tories top Liberals in donations

In2013,the Mount Royal Conservative Association raised $19,205 raisedfrom 74 contributors.

To put that in perspective, over the same time period, the local Liberal associationmustered upjust $3,972 indonationsfrom 59supporters.

The biggest single haul for Quebec Tories, however, was in Minister of State for Small Business Maxime Bernier's home riding of Beauce, where 236donors kicked in$45,905 to fill up the local coffers.

Overall, Quebec Conservative riding associations raised $177,733 in 2013.

That works out to three per cent of theCanada-widegrand total of $3,705,750.57.

New Democrat riding associations, meanwhile,raked in a comparativelywhopping $348,592.87 in Quebec just under 30 per cent of the party'sCanada-wide total of $1,253,820.47.

Just five Quebec NDPriding associations reported no revenue at all, and 11brought in less than $1,000.

NDP LeaderTom Mulcair's riding of Outremont pulled in the single highest total $22,325 and themost extensive donor list was reported by Notre-Dame-de-Grace, whichgarneredthe supportof 551 contributors.

As for the Liberals, despite the end-of-May deadline,13of the party's Quebec riding associations haven't yet filed therequired paperwork for last year including Papineau, home ofJustin Trudeau.

Liberals lag behind NDP

The available numbers, however,suggests that,as of last December, thedeterminedly upward trendthe party has been enjoying in the polls wasn't causing a similar boost in fundraising numbers, at least at the local level.

In total,Quebec Liberal riding associations raised$246,945.89 in 2013, which is just over10 percent of thecross-Canada total.

Of the 62 that havefiledreturnswith Elections Canada, 10 reported receiving no contributions at all, and another 20 took in less than $1,000.

The biggest windfall landed in Saint LeonardSaint Michel, which reported $39,227 in contributions, with BrossardLa Prairie fielding thehighestnumber of individual contributors at 264.

The Liberals can, at least, console themselves with the fact that they aren't the Bloc Qubcois, whose riding associations raised just$117,216 in 2013.

That puts the once Quebec-dominant Blocjust slightly behind the Conservatives, and in last place, although that number could change, asthereare more than 20 associations that haven't yet filed their 2013 reports.

Of the Bloc riding associationsthat have submitted their numbers, Bas-RichelieuNicoletBecancour is currently in the lead, with a final tally of $36,205 from 386 donors.

Seventeen associations reported no contributions at all, and 11 took in less than $1,000.

(Methodological note: Asonly 21 Green Party riding associations have filed reports for 2013, those numbers have been left out of this analysis.)