Canadian Politics Today

I'm assuming fundraising for elections is different in Canada from the United States. At least, I will go out on a limb and assume it is so.

It seems to me that an MP campaigning to be (re-) elected is really, by extension, campaigning for his/her party to have the majority in the Commons; or, by even greater extension, to try to make sure his/her party leader ends up becoming (or staying) PM. I'm going out on another limb by assuming that, with this in mind, there is less need for an MP to campaign as an individual in Canada, compared to a member of the U.S. Congress. You have shorter campaigns--which probably helps drive down the costs of advertising.

But that's my guess, and I'm probably totally wrong. Or maybe not. So how is it done in Canada? Can individual MPs raise money? or does it all go into the party's war chest? How much influence do special interests end up getting in elections? Are THEY (the special interests) allowed to advertise, too?

It used to be more subsidized:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/elections-canada-data-donors-increase-1.5322682

Long and short of it:

- Shorter campaigns, much less spent because of that
- Contribution limits, much less spent because of that

Limits on corporate and union spending but third parties still sneak in with '3rd party ads'.  In the end, it's less about money and you don't therefore have Senators worth $100M as you do in the US.

Right, there doesn't seem to be the need for it. It seems from this article that people in Canada donate to parties instead of candidates, if I understand correctly.

I have to admit this is definitely one of the perquisites of a parliamentary democracy: there's less need for them to fund raise like ours do. Congressmen/senators have independent power bases that have less to do with their party and little if anything to do with the executive branch. In the UK, I read the limit is £6000 for an MP to raise. That wouldn't buy an American congressman a single TV spot.

The US system is accelerating its own failure.