Money raised by federal political parties spiked in the run-up to the Oct. 21, election but the Conservatives and Liberals raked in most of the dough, leaving their already impoverished rivals in the dust.
Financial returns for the third quarter of 2019 filed with Elections Canada show the Conservatives, the perennial fundraising champs, pulled in a cool $10.1 million from almost 62,000 donors between July 1 and the end of September.
The Liberals weren't far behind, raising $7.3 million from just over 53,000 contributors.
By contrast, the NDP collected $2.65 million from almost 21,000 donors, just $50,000 more than the Greens collected from just over 21,000 contributors.
All the parties engaged in frenzied fundraising in the weeks leading up to and during an election campaign, which typically yield substantially more money than can be raised in non-election years.
That held true for all four national parties this time. But the fundraising pattern _ the NDP and Greens lagging far behind the two front-runners _ remained unchanged from the past few non-election years.