OTTAWA—The Justin Trudeau-led Liberal party is gaining fundraising ground on the New Democrats, and the Conservative Party is seeing its famed donor base erode slightly, the latest figures from Elections Canada show.

According to audited financial statements posted by Elections Canada on Thursday, there was good news for both the Liberals and the Greens, and for the Conservative party — a nod to its famed fundraising prowess.

The Tories were still far and away the most effective at prying dollars from Canadians’ wallets for its political activity. The Conservative Party of Canada raised $18.1 million from 80,135 contributors in 2013.

That’s nearly $1 million more than the Stephen Harper-led Conservatives took in the year before. However, after a Senate spending scandal raised questions among its core supporters, it is from fewer donors.

In 2012, the Conservatives had drawn $17.2 million from 87,306 donors.

The erosion of the Conservatives’ number of contributors was first indicated in internal party campaign documents the Star reported on earlier this year, which also flagged dropping membership rolls.

It is still an impressive haul, and the Conservatives’ $18-million political kitty is nearly $7 million more than the Liberals managed to raise last year.

Yet for the Liberal Party, there was encouraging news in the annual financial numbers.

In 2013, the year that Trudeau became leader of the party in April, the Liberals raised $11.3 million from 71,655 contributors — a significant increase to the donor base of a year before, and $3 million more than it took in during 2012.

In 2012, the Liberals raised just $8.1 million in contributions from 44,466 donors. The party was in transition that year after a disastrous 2011 election result when the Liberals were reduced to just 34 seats in the Commons.

The Liberals now have 37 MPs, having absorbed one New Democrat MP and won two byelections in ridings held previously by the Conservatives and NDP. The Tories now have 162 seats.

The New Democrats, with 98 seats, are clearly lagging behind in dollars raised, as well as number of contributors.

In 2013, the NDP led by Tom Mulcair raised $8.1 million from 39,218 contributors. That’s only slightly more than the $7.6 million raised in 2012, when the party had more people willing to throw money into their coffers — 43,537 donors.

Overall, the Elections Canada documents indicate that national politics stimulated more Canadians in 2013 to give to the three main federal parties.

The 2013 figures show some 191,008 Canadians contributed to the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP. That’s more than in 2012, when 175,309 people contributed to the three parties.

The Bloc Québécois never really recovered from its near disappearance in the 2011 election. It had a slight dip in donors and funds raised in 2013, raising about $400,000 in each year from more than 4,000 contributors. But in 2011, the BQ counted more than 7,000 donors who gave nearly $790,000 to the separatist party.

Meanwhile, the Green Party of Canada, led by Elizabeth May, showed a marked increase in money raised and the number of contributors willing to cough up for the fifth party in the Commons. In 2012, the Greens raised $434,000 from 9,532. In 2013, that rose to $2.2 million donated by 14,500 people.

However, a new political season will soon be upon Canadians as the federal parties gear up for the 2015 federal election.

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All parties are fiercely campaigning to raise money as the Conservative government has begun to phase-out a public per-vote subsidy that was introduced after political donation limits were tightened.

And they are also advertising to lure supporters, with any money spent before a formal election writ drops not counted as an election expense.

Spending returns show that in 2013, the Liberals outspent the Conservatives and the NDP on advertising. The Liberals spent $1.6 million on television, radio and “other” advertising, where the Conservatives listed a total of $1.5 million on advertising in 2013. The New Democrats stated spending of just $200,000 on advertising expenses.

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