Councillors short on local financial support

23 Oct 2014

In the previous municipal election Giorgio Mammoliti was elected to city council with at least 37% of his campaign donations coming from people who live outside of Toronto, according to an analysis of financial records released by the city.

In contrast, only 1% of the money he received came from people who live inside Ward 7, the area he was elected to represent. An additional 11% of his financial contributions were not properly reported and their location could not easily be determined.

Earlier this year the CBC highlighted the large sums of money flowing into Toronto politics from outside the city limits, noting that Toronto “is one of the few municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area that reimburses political donations to people who don't live, pay taxes or vote in the city.”

Toronto reimburses up to 75% of financial contributions given to those running for councillor or Mayor and, according to the CBC, paid out roughly $4.8 Million to people who live outside of city limits in 2010.

An average of 22% of contributions to elected councillors came from outside of city limits in 2010. Less than a third of the money given to candidates came from their own constituents.

Doug Ford was elected to represent Ward 2, with only 11% percent of the contributions he received came from people who lived in the that same ward. Nonetheless, eight other councillors were elected with a lower percentage of financial support from within their ward. Denzil Minnan-Wong was elected with 5% of his funds coming from his constituents, slightly more than Ana Bailão, who had only 4% of her contributions come from inside the ward she ran in.

Only four candidates were elected with over 60% of their funds coming from inside their ward, not including Doug Holyday, who did not receive a single donation.

Information about who campaign contributions in the 2014 election will not be released until next spring.

The following chart breaks down of the percentage of campaign contributions received from within the ward a councillor ran in, the rest of the city, or from outside the city.

Note that other councillors also had unknown amounts of contributions, but Mammoliti was the only councillor where the proportion was so significant.

Research and reporting by Tim Groves