A push to impose campaign spending limits on interest groups is back on the radar after Elections Ontario reported they spent almost $9 million during last spring’s vote that lifted the Liberals to a majority.

Leading the way was the anti-Progressive Conservative coalition called Working Families, with $2.5 million in advertising.

It’s not fair that political parties face spending limits but private groups such as unions and business organizations do not, Progressive Conservative House Leader Steve Clark said Wednesday.

“There should be very strict rules . . . it would be a natural evolution of the electoral process,” he said, noting the federal government has a $188,000 cap on how much interest groups can spend.

“People want a level playing field.”

The spending on advertising by so-called “third parties” was up from $6.7 million in the 2011 provincial election. The biggest spenders were unions, including Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association at $2.1 million.

Patrick Dillon of Working Families, which Conservatives cite in their poor showing in the last four Ontario campaigns, said the party has itself to blame because of policies that have been too far to the right for most Ontarians.

“When Tim Hudak’s plan for 100,000 public sector job cuts was announced, everybody got focused,” Dillon said of sometimes fractious unions — including some teachers that had fallen out with the Liberals over a 2012 wage freeze.

“No matter what differences we have, we set aside the difference to expose the Conservative agenda for what it is.”

Some candidates in the Conservative leadership race to replace Hudak have said the party needs to find more common grounds with unions.

Premier Kathleen Wynne has been cool to third-party spending limits despite a call for them from Ontario’s chief electoral officer, Greg Essensa, two years ago.

“Ontario has rules in place to ensure that there is both transparency and free speech in our election campaigns,” said Wynne spokeswoman Zita Astravas, pointing out a 2007 law requiring third parties spending more than $500 on election ads to register with Elections Ontario.

The Conservatives — who introduced a private member’s bill last year calling on the legislature to set third-party campaign spending limits — have long complained Working Families is a Liberal front group but have been unable to prove any connections in court.

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A report by York University professor Robert MacDermid released during the 2011 provincial election, in which then-premier Dalton McGuinty was reduced to a minority, found the Liberals were beneficiaries of “loose” campaign finance rules allowing unlimited third-party ads.

MacDermid said the lack of cap makes a mockery of spending limits on political parties.