MPs, failed candidates set to get tens of millions in rebates from taxpayers

Canadian taxpayers will soon be spending about $32 million to reimburse election expenses for failed and successful candidates who received at least 10 per cent of the vote in their ridings in the recent campaign.

A total of 984candidates met that threshold on the Oct. 19 vote although recounts may change that number slightly.

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As soon as the validated writs of election are returned, Elections Canada instructs the Receiver General of Canada to send out cheques to all eligible campaigns for 15 per cent of the riding's maximum spending limit for the election. That's just an initial installment of the full refund of 60 per cent of eligible expenses.

The first payments are expected to go out by mid-November.

Since all 338 elected Members of Parliament obviously exceeded the 10 per cent threshold, it means there are an additional 646failed candidates who will also see their campaign war chests partially replenished.

Liberals stand to get most back

The refunds, it should be noted, belong to the respective parties' registered electoral district association and not the individual candidate personally. Which means that if a candidate was dropped after the nomination deadline, the riding association can still get a refund.

The Liberals are poised to benefit the most from the refunds. All but one of the party's candidates will get their eligible expenses subsidized by taxpayers.

Even that one candidate came close. While Conservative Kevin Sorenson took 81 per cent of the vote in Alberta's Battle RiverCrowfoot riding, in one of the election's most lopsided victories, Liberal Andy Kowalski fell just short of the 10 per cent threshold for reimbursement.

Although the Conservatives lost power in the election, all but 30 of its candidates are eligible for the reimbursement, whereas nearly a quarter of NDP candidates fell below the threshold.

Conversely, only nine of the Green party's candidates passed the 10 per cent threshold.

All told, taxpayers are potentially on the hook to cover more than $128-million in campaign expenses although that calculation is based on each of the eligible candidates spending the maximum allowed by Elections Canada, a highly unlikely scenario.

Nonetheless, with campaign spending limits having doubled in this election because of new rules and an historically long campaign, it's all but certain total reimbursement to candidateswill exceed the estimated $26 million paid out for the 2011 election.