January 26th, 2021

NDP finishes 2020 with record donations and engagement

ETOBICOKE — The Ontario NDP received more than $2.5 million in donations in 2020 — just $400,000 shy of the governing PC Party and ahead of the Liberals, according to Elections Ontario’s figures for those parties.

The $2.5 million was collected through a whopping 90,000 individual donations made to the NDP last year.

“The Ontario NDP is excited and motivated by the faith people are putting in Andrea Horwath, and our plan to elect an NDP government in 2022 to make life better for everyday folks,” said Lucy Watson, Provincial Director of the Ontario NDP. “In a year that saw Doug Ford and the Tories’ fundraising plummet by $2 million, the Ontario NDP broke our own records across the board for a non-election year.”

The NDP’s numbers are higher than reported on the Elections Ontario website because donations under $100 aren’t reported there – and the NDP’s average donation is just $29. Elections Ontario says the Liberals’ average donation is $146 and the Conservatives average donation is $359. Without donations under $100, Elections Ontario’s website puts the PC Party’s 2020 donations at $2.9 million. The Liberals raised $2 million, half of which was from registration fees from their leadership convention.

Watson said donations aren’t the only sign that Ontarians are looking to the NDP to make Doug Ford a one-term premier. In 2020:

  • More than 3,500 people were trained to work with the NDP on the next election campaign
  • The NDP held over 200 training sessions
  • Over 400,000 people signed an NDP petition in support of NDP commitments and positions
  • Nomination applications rolled in, putting the NDP on track to nomination more than half of all 2022 candidates by June 2021
  • Riding associations raised an additional $1.3 million, on top of the party’s central fundraising
  • The NDP received more individual donations than all other parties combined at 90,000

“Our movement is more important than ever,” said Watson. “Expanding universal health care, bringing long-term care into public and non-profit hands, making life affordable for middle class families, and shoring up the social safety nets we all count on — just imagine what an NDP government can accomplish by putting everyday people at the heart of everything it does.”