Independent Candidates can only raise money during the year of an election.

This means when a vote of non-confidence or a snap election is called, Independents only have a few weeks to raise money while they are campaigning. They have no way of knowing it’s an election year when non-confidence games are in play. Meanwhile, Party Candidates can have money in the bank.

Parties can raise money each year.

Spending limits for Parties are determined by how many registered candidates they have competing. In 2021, the maximum allowed spending for any Party was $30 million.

Collectively the NDP ($24M), Liberals ($27M), and Conservatives ($28M) spent over $79 million in a total of 338 constituencies, an average of about $234,000 per constituency. Put differently, the average Conservative candidate got a marketing boost of about $83,000 before spending a nickel of their own.

Before an Independent Candidate even knows who the opponents might be, however, they are facing a spending disadvantage of nearly a quarter of a million dollars and have limited time to raise money. Once the individual opponents do enter the race, additional spending comes into play, and there is another avalanche of money to fight against. In the past Federal election, several party candidates spent more than $125,000 each. Most were in the $40,000 range.

In Canada under current regulations elections aren’t won, they are purchased $$$.

Independent Campaigns can’t possibly outspend the cartel, but they can outwork them. It is a matter of getting those 10,300,000 disenchanted eligible voters to help just by showing up at the polls.