Oakville residents gave $2.2M to federal parties in election donations over last five years

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Published January 26, 2023 at 2:49 pm

Oakville MP Anita Anand has been named the new president of the Treasury Board after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled his cabinet on Wednesday. FILE PHOTO

When it comes to making political contributions, Oakville donors aren’t afraid to reach deep into their wallets.

Residents in the Oakville riding have forked over $2.2 million in donations to federal political parties following Anita Anand’s win for the Liberals in 2015 through 2020.

That’s well above the national riding average of $853,000, according to recent analysis of Elections Canada data done by the News Data Hub at Toronto Metropolitan University and the Investigative Journalism Foundation, a non-profit journalism startup tracking political donations and lobbyist activity in partnership with scholars from Canadian universities.

The affluent Oakville riding ranked 16 out of 338 ridings across Canada in terms of total donations greater than $200 to federal political parties, electoral district associations and 2019 political parties.

The Liberal Party were the main beneficiary of the money donated in Oakville, taking in $1,008,936 for 47 per cent of the total donations made.

The data analysis revealed several reasons for Oakville’s high ranking, including donors going deep into their pockets when it came time to make donations.

The average donation in Oakville was $1,008, over the national average of $831.

More people contributed as well, with 2,134 residents supporting political parties. That’s 236 out of every 10,000 registered voters making a donation.

The national average was 971 donors per riding, which is round 119 per 10,000 registered voters.

Ottawa Centre led the country in political contributions, with more over $5.9 million in donations.

The riding, which includes Parliament Hill, is home to several public servants and lobbyists.

Ranking second and third for total donations were Toronto’s University–Rosedale riding, which encompasses the wealthy enclave of Rosedale-Moore Park, and the riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s, home to part of the Forest Hill neighbourhood.

Together both contributed nearly $9.5 million to federal parties over the five-year period.

The analysis also found a clear relationship between median income and total donations.

That was the case in Oakville, where the median income and voter turnout were both higher than national levels.

The median income in the local riding is $40,933, higher when compared with the national median of $34,204.

In the 2019 election, 73 per cent of registered electors voted in the Oakville riding, while the national turnout was 67 per cent.

The Conservative Party raised the most money over the five years, bringing in almost $179 million. Liberals brought in $142 million, followed by the NDP at $52 million, the Green Party at $24 million and the Block Québécois at $7 million.

Top ridings for federal party fundraising (Oct. 20, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020)

  1. Ottawa Centre: $5.9 million
  2. University–Rosedale: $5.4 million
  3. Toronto–St. Paul’s: $4.1 million
  4. Calgary Centre: $4 million
  5. Don Valley West: $3.4 million
  6. Vancouver Quadra: $3.3 million
  7. Ottawa–Vanier: $3.1 million
  8. Vancouver Centre: $2.7 million
  9. West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country: $2.6 million
  10. Victoria: $2.6 million
  11. Saanich–Gulf Islands: $2.5 million
  12. Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount: $2.3 million
  13. Winnipeg South Centre: $2.3 million
  14. Vancouver Granville: $2.3 million
  15. Eglinton–Lawrence: $2.3 million
  16. Oakville: $2.2 million
  17. Edmonton Centre: $2.1 million
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