How much does it cost to run for mayor of West Nipissing?

Official spending data is out. Who spent the most and other highlights.

As prescribed by the Municipal Elections Act every candidate that ran in last year’s municipal elections was required to officially disclose their financial statements by March 31st.

In West Nipissing this information officially became available to the public in the last month.

All candidates except one complied with the Act in the filing of their 2022 expenses and contributions. Mayoral candidate Dan Roveda is the only listed as not having complied with the legal requirements before the March 31st deadline. This could be due to the fact that he is the only candidate that spent over $10,000 which necessitates more scrutiny including an official audit.

As a concerned citizen I’ve always been interested in elections spending. Today, after reviewing every candidate’s disclosures, I’ll share some of the highlights I found.

Mayoral Contest

In 2022 this is what our three mayoral candidates spent:

Dave Lewington’s $3,646 budget got dwarfed by his two opponents. His total expenses amounted to only a third of what eventual winner Kathleen Thorne-Rochon spent.

On a per vote basis, Lewington ran the most efficient campaign. He spent $1.84 per vote compared to $3.44 per vote for Thorne-Rochon and $6.05 per vote for Roveda.

People who donated to the Lewington campaign most definitely got the most bang for their buck.

It’s also interesting to note that Lewington is the only mayoral candidate to declare mileage/car expenses ($941 out of Lewington’s $3,646 budget). Candidates are supposed to declare expenses related to travel during the campaign. Doing so likely would have put Thorne-Rochon over the $10,000 spending threshold and require a full audit. We must just assume that her and Roveda used their bicycles for the length of their campaigns.

If the second place candidate would omit his mileage like the others, the spending difference would be even more pronounced. Comparatively, Thorne-Rochon spent 343% more than Lewington. And Roveda spent 426% more while picking up less votes.

Municipal Elections Are Not Cheap

The one thing, my observation has showed me is that even municipal elections are not cheap. Although we don’t see the same level of spending as North Bay where that winner spent nearly $50,000, it’s clear that one’s financial means and contributors definitely impact their chances at winning an election.

Mayoral candidates had to spend up to $7,000 of their own money. They had to fundraise more than almost every charity in our small town. Just so they can plaster our town with plastic signs and empty advertising messages. Last week a local non-profit group asked council for a donations and they declined. Presumably and understandably because we are in a financial crunch and can’t afford to help non-profits. But for a second imagine where the nearly $25,000 our mayoral candidates spent on could have gone. I understand politics and I’m not advocating against election financing in a free country such as ours. I just like to put things into context in our small community.

Councillor Candidates

Generally speaking councillor candidates’ financials are somewhat uninteresting compared to the mayoral ones. That is because most councillors only spend a fraction of what our mayoral leaders did. You can find my disclosure here. I spent $1,101 with no fundraising, falling around the general average. The most spent by any councillor candidate was $3,260. The least spent was $0.

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