This was revealed by an analysis of Electoral Quebec data published on 25 August 2022, three days before the start of the election campaign.
The analysis begins in 2021, as this is the year in which all the leaders of the parties represented during the recent dissolution of the National Assembly emerged. Indeed, Paul Saint-Pierre-Plamondon became parliamentary leader in November 2020, Eric Duhaime in April 2021, Dominique Anglade in May 2021, and then Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois in May 2021.
An elector may pay up to $100 per year in contributions to each political party, each independent candidate and each authorized independent member. A voter in an electoral district in which a general or by-election is held may pay up to $100 per party, per independent member and per independent candidate.
During the same period (2021-2022), Eric Duhaime’s Conservative Party stood out for its number of donors. In fact, the PCQ managed to count 28% of the five dominant parties’ contributors, compared to 26% for the CAQ, 20% for the PQ, 14% for the QS and 10% for the PLQ.
In the Chauvet riding held by Duhaime, around 61% of donors supported the PCQ across all parties. Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, Arthabaska, Louis-Hébert, Montmorency, La Peltrie and Vanier-Les Rivières are also among the sectors where PCQ has the highest number of donors compared to other organizations.
Still, the CAQ’s 13,015 donors were nearly twice as generous as the PCQ’s 13,889.
The riding of Matane-Matapedia remains the seat with the most donations for a single party, with PQ MP Pascal Berube collecting more than 80% of all party grants in the stronghold there. During this period, Taschereau (managed by QS’s Catherine Dorian) was ahead of Matane-Matapédia in terms of the total value of the PQ’s crops, which saw Joliet and Jean-Talon third and fourth.
On the other hand, Beauharnois recorded the lowest proportion of donations granted to one of the five parties: the Liberal Party of Quebec received only 0.5% of the spoils there.
However, the PLQ received its most significant contributions in Westmount-Saint-Louis, Mont-Royal-Outremont, Jean-Mans-Viger and Verdun. In these ridings, with the exception of Verdun, Liberal candidates were elected with more than 50% of the vote in 2018. Moreover, the period studied does not include a Liberal Party leadership race, which often favors supporter philanthropy.
All the other leaders except Dominic Anglede will ensure that their party gets the maximum amount of sanctioned amount in their respective constituencies. Thus, Quebec Solidaire finds 66% of the value of donations in Gouin, where Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is active, while François Legault’s CAQ collects 58% in L’Assomption, Eric Duhaime’s PCQ collects 42% in Chauvet, and Paul Saint-Pierre-Plamondon’s PQ collects 35% in Camille- Laurin, formerly Bourget. For his part, the PLQ receives only 25% of donations in Saint-Henri-Saint-Anne in Dominique Anglade, a county ahead of Guillaume Clichy-Riard of the QS (33%).
As for the ten most populous ridings, including Saint-Jérôme at their head, the CAQ wins them all in terms of the value of out-of-pocket subscriptions.
In general ranking regardless of party, the ridings with the most donations in this 2021-2022 sample were Taschereau, tops with $127,200 from 1,023 donors, followed by Jean-Talon, Mont-Royal-Outremont, Mercier Verdun. Only one of these four ridings did not elect a Liberal candidate in 2018, Mercier, won by QS’s Ruba Ghazal.
Duplessis, René-Lévesque, Gaspé, Ungava and Îles-de-la-Madeleine, with a smaller number of registered voters, secured lower bailouts in the coffers that were adverse to the riding. 89 donors in this island riding gave less than $10,000 to one or another of the five parties during this period, but most notably to the Parti Québécois.
By the time the National Assembly was dissolved political parties without representatives in it had $103,034 or less than 2% of the popular financing received in those 20 months.
Finally, if the seats are distributed according to the money raised from contributors in 2021-2022, CAQ dominates with 64 seats, followed by PLQ (22), PQ (16), QS (15) and PCQ (8).
(Collaboration with Daniel Tremblay)
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