NDP national director Anne McGrath speaks at the NDP convention in Hamilton, Ont. Friday, Oct.13, 2023. The federal New Democrats are awaiting final end-of-year fundraising totals before they can celebrate paying off their debt from the last federal election when it won 25 seats.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power
OTTAWA – The federal New Democrats believe they will be able to pay off their 2021 election debt soon but are awaiting end-of-year fundraising totals before they can celebrate.
NDP director Anne McGrath says the party will know by the end of January how much money it raised during a final 2023 fundraising blitz, when it must report those figures to Elections Canada.
She says the party had less than $1 million left on a $22-million election loan from 2021 and believes the fundraising will allow it to pay off the debt in the coming months.
McGrath says when the debt is paid off, the party will start accumulating a war chest for the next federal campaign, which has to happen before October 2025.
Even though the NDP are propping up the minority Liberal government through a confidence-and-supply agreement until June 2025, an election could still happen earlier if that agreement were to fall apart.
If that were the case, the New Democrats say they would be prepared to run a full slate of candidates.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2024.
