Maxime Bernier edges out Kevin O'Leary, leads fundraising race in Conservative leadership

MaximeBernierled the field of Conservative leadership candidates in fundraising in the first quarter of 2017, raising almost twice as much as his nearestcompetitor still in the race andbeating out his erstwhilerival and now supporter Kevin O'Leary.

These numbers were part of the fundraising data released Monday by Elections Canada showing thatthe Conservative Party raised the most money in the first quarter,raking in$2.5 million more than the Liberals.

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Bernierraised $1,031,312 in the first three months of 2017, increasing his total raised since entering the Conservative leadership race over a year ago to $2.04 million. His latest fundraising came from 4,704 individual contributors.

That number putBerniernarrowly ahead of O'Leary, who raised $1,029,568 from 7,313 unique contributors in the first quarter of 2017. That total does not include the money O'Leary might have raised in April before he withdrew from the campaign and threw his support behindBernier.

KellieLeitchcame in third with $536,419 raised from 2,784 unique contributors, pushing her to $1.34 million raised since the start of her bid for the Conservative leadership.

ErinO'Tooleedged ahead of AndrewScheerin fundraising, taking in $424,347 compared toScheer's$403,014. ButScheerraised that money from 2,077 uniquecontributors toO'Toole's1,492.

The rest of the field of 13 candidates broke down as follows:

• MichaelChong: $283,978 from 1,119 contributors.
• PierreLemieux: $237,694 from 2,150 contributors.
• LisaRaitt: $208,368 from 922 contributors.
• BradTrost: $120,893 from 891 contributors.
• AndrewSaxton: $94,114 from 179 contributors.
• Chris Alexander: $88,053 from 261 contributors.
• Rick Peterson: $61,743 from 168 contributors.
• StevenBlaney: $47,031 from 613 contributors.
• DeepakObhrai: $13,372 from 43 contributors.

The numbers suggest that party members may be focusing more on the perceived front-runners as the race nears its end. Bernier, Leitch, O'Toole, Scheer, Chong, Lemieux and Raitt all saw increases in their fundraising from the last quarter of 2016, while the six bottom ranked candidates, Trost, Saxton, Alexander, Peterson, Blaney and Obhrai, all had a dip in their money raised.

Tony Clement and Dan Lindsay, who withdrew from the race last fall, raised $27,200 and $2,525, respectively.

Angus leads NDP leadership fundraising

Thefundraising data also provides a first glimpse into the NDP leadership campaign. The numbers suggest that Ontario MP Charlie Angus has the edge on his rivals

Angus has raised $110,765 from 794 individual contributors, representing 44 per cent of all of the money raised by the four leadership contestants officially in the running.

Manitoba MPNikiAshtonfollowed with $65,621 raised from 494 individual contributors, putting her narrowly ahead of Quebec MP GuyCaron, who raised $57,235 from 231 contributors.

Peter Julian raised $19,143 from 196 contributors, adding to the $32,037 he raised in the final quarter of 2016. That combined total, however, still puts him behind the other three leadership candidates.

Members of the NDP will begin voting in September, with the winner being announced in October.

Conservatives lead fundraising, Liberals drop

Despite the ongoing leadership race sucking in donations from Conservative-friendly donors, the Conservative Partyled in first quarter fundraising with $5,308,501 raised from 42,473 contributions. This was better than their performance over the previous three quarters.

The total was just below the party's haul in the first quarter of 2016 before leadership contestants began competingfor fundraising dollars.

The Liberals raised $2,801,233 from 31,812 contributions in the first quarter of 2017, theirworst quarter since 2013. The Liberals had led the Conservatives in the two previous quarters.

• Liberals lead 4th quarter fundraising

Donations to the New Democrats were also down, dropping to $908,892 raised from 13,404 contributions. That represents theNDP'sworst first quarter since 2010 though some of the donations that went to the four leadership contestants this quarter might have otherwise gone to the party.

The Greens raised $476,153 from 7,167 contributions while the BlocQubcoisraised $136,619 from 1,382 contributions. This wasthe Bloc's best first quarter result since 2011. The Bloc chose its new leader,MartineOuellet, in March.