The Conservative Party made sure its Kootenay-Columbia candidate was on your Facebook timeline.
The campaign for Rob Morrison, who was re-elected as the riding’s MP on Monday, spent $3,630 on Facebook ads between Aug. 22 to Sept. 20, according to the social media website’s ad tracker that discloses election spending.
The tracker doesn’t offer dates matching those of the election, which began on Aug. 15 when parliament was dissolved, and therefore doesn’t include one week of the campaign.
But it does show that only Morrison’s campaign invested in its Facebook presence.
NDP Wayne Stetski, who finished runner-up, paid just $650 in Facebook ads. Robin Goldsbury’s campaign spent $934 via the Kootenay-Columbia Federal Liberals page, while no pages or contributions were listed for Sarah Bennett of the People’s Party and Rana Nelson of the Green Party.
Those numbers are also not consistent with how federal parties paid Facebook.
During the same 30-day period, the Liberal Party spent $2.2 million in ads, followed by the Conservatives ($2 million), and NDP ($1.6 million).
The Bloc Quebecois followed with $139,317, while the People’s Party spent just $60,444. The Green Party, meanwhile, paid only $6,028 in ads.
Federal parties also paid extra to promote their leaders’ Facebook pages.
The Liberals spent $829,322 to prop up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while the NDP paid $312,509 to promote Jagmeet Singh. Erin O’Toole’s campaign, meanwhile, spent $228,854.
Just over half of the Green Party’s Facebook budget was spent on leader Annamie Paul ($3,733), while no individual page was listed for People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier.
Facebook also discloses third-party election ad spending.
Working Ontario Women, which campaigned against O’Toole, spent the most of any third party with $225,767. They were followed by Canada Proud, a pro-Conservative page that spent $169,978 attacking Trudeau. The United Steelworkers, meanwhile, spent $77,846 to promote Singh.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated Robin Goldsbury spent no money on Facebook ads during the election. The Kootenay-Columbia Federal Liberals page paid for ads on her behalf.
READ MORE:
• Kootenay Conservative candidate sits on top; final result pending mail-in ballots
• Mail-in ballots to decide several tight races in Canada’s election; results expected within days
• O’Toole triggers campaign review after loss, saying no one more disappointed than him
@tyler_harper | tyler.harper@nelsonstar.com
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