Party and Candidate Expenditures in the Canadian General Election of 1972

Abstract

A calculation similar in manner to that employed by the Advisory Committee on Election Expenses, and by the author for earlier elections, reveals that a conservative estimate of over-all spending by political parties and candidates in the 1972 federal general election campaign would have amounted to well over $31 million. To complete the picture of the cash outlay on the federal electoral process one should add the $20,435,277.54 spent by the chief electoral officer on the 1972 federal general election, as well as the value of free broadcasting time supplied to parties and candidates by the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the private stations. (In addition, the unknown costs of obtaining a party's nomination by constituency candidates and the pro-rated costs of the representation commissioner and electoral boundary commissioners calculated by Professor Norman Ward at $200,000 per election must be computed in order to arrive at the full cost of the electoral process.)